Apparently, Warren Bolton over at The State is against police officers chasing bad guys who flee - because it's just too gosh darn dangerous. His column is based on the story of a driver who fled from the Cayce police department back in December.
The basic facts are that a Cayce police officer attempted to make a nighttime traffic stop on a vehicle driving without headlights. The driver decided to flee, and a high-speed pursuit began. The pursuit ended when the suspect's vehicle crashed into an innocent person's vehicle. Unfortunately, the innocent third-party driver died as a result of the collision.
From these facts, Mr. Bolton draws the conclusion that Cayce police officers should adopt a policy of not pursuing people for "routine traffic violations".
Not all chases are wise chases; most aren’t. Frankly, there rarely is a justifiable reason for officers to engage in a high-speed chase. It’s the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with innocent bystanders’ lives.
The only time a chase is absolutely warranted is when it involves a violent suspect — a murderer on the run or someone firing shots from a car — who is clearly endangering the public.
This is a pretty restrictive rule. If this is your rule for chasing, that means a drunk guy weaving all over the road shouldn't be pursued by the police when he decides not to stop. This means that anyone with expired tags shouldn't be pursued if they decide not to stop. Speeding? Heck, they shouldn't be chasing you for that anymore, either. If you're already driving fast, just drive a little faster if you see the blue lights. As long as you're not a "violent suspect" I guess you're fine. Rob a bank? Hey, as long as you didn't shoot anyone, just keep on driving. The police won't chase you.
Now obviously, high-speed chases are dangerous. But if the suspect is already fleeing at a high rate of speed, they're already causing a dangerous situation. I'm not really concerned about the police following them because my assumption is that the police are pretty safe drivers, comparatively. They've trained for this. My guess is that if you look at the statistics about high-speed chases, it's the people fleeing who cause the problems, not the police. Yes, accidents will happen. But there's a cost-benefit analysis here. As cold as it sounds, I'm fine with the risk associated with most high-speed chases because criminals know that they can't run. Also, in this day and age, police have lots of resources at their disposal. They can call ahead to other units, use GPS, and in larger jurisdictions there are helicopters available.
Running from the cops should be like kidnapping. You just really can't get away with it anymore.
Running from the cops should be like kidnapping. You just really can't get away with it anymore.
Mr. Bolton believes that not only is statewide standard is needed, but that officers now need to get permission to chase someone. That's silly.
Let’s not only establish a statewide minimum standard for police chases, but let’s require that officers be well-versed and well-trained on the policy and that they get authorization from a superior before initiating a chase.
[SCENE]
Police Officer Do-Right is driving down the street on a nice sunny Spring day. All of a sudden, a car runs a red light right in front of him going 80 miles an hour. Officer Do-Right turns on his lights/siren and turns to follow. He quickly realizes that he'll need to go faster to keep up.Officer Do-Right: Dispatch, this is Officer Do-Right, I'm in pursuit of a black ford on Knox Abbot. Is it ok if I chase him?Dispatch: What did the suspect do?Officer Do-Right: He drove through a red light at 80 miles an hour right in front of me, and now he's going even faster to get away. Can I follow him? He's getting away!Dispatch: Let me see if I can find a supervisor. Please wait.[30 seconds go by]Lieutenant Big-Time: Hey officer Do-Right, this is Lieutenant Big-Time, what's happening?Officer Do-Right: I'm requesting permission to chase a guy who blew through a red light at 80 miles an hour right in front of me.Lieutenant Big-Time: Did he have a gun? Was he a murderer?Officer Do-Right: I don't know, he was going really fast and ran a red light, that's all I know!Lieutenant Big-Time: Well how do we know that he's really dangerous? Did he shoot at you?Officer Do-Right: No! He's way ahead of me now.Lieutenant Big-Time: Hmmmm....seems speculative.Officer Do-Right: Oh nevermind, he's already gotten away. I don't know where he is anymore.Lieutenant Big-Time: Ok, well...good job officer. I'm glad you called to get permission before you did something reckless like chase someone. I'm glad you called to check before you used your initiative. We can't have officers using their initiative; that wouldjust bee too dangerous. Carry on patrolling.
[SCENE]
That sounds like a great policy to me. Amirite?
As you can see from the first scene in my upcoming movie Stop....or I'll Say Stop Again, the police can't have the policy of "We won't chase you unless you're a murderer or shooting at us". That's just an invitation to disregard the police.
I would actually go the other way. If you flee from the cops, they're going to chase you down, catch you, and then you're going to be prosecuted for it. And make that sentence a tough one. We live is a society that has laws. We're either going to follow the law, or we're going to be lawless. Fleeing from the police is a crime in and of itself. I guess Mr. Bolton doesn't really care about enforcing that law, though.
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