Wednesday, May 5, 2010
High Speed Chases are Killing People
I heard about a fatal accident yesterday on the news, it was caused by a high speed police chase. The victim was an innocent bystander. This made me question the effectiveness of police chases. It has become more and more common as we hear about car related deaths but I believe that it is very different when the deaths are cause by our own police force. Everyday people die in car accidents but more and more people are becoming victims as people make and race faster cars. Those people who are running from the cops in fast cars are becoming a serious safety liability as cops are forced to chase them down. Is it really necessary to chase down someone who has a faster car than those issued by the police stations? When these high speed chases are in pursuit peoples lives are in danger. Bystanders, the police men and the people that are running are all risking there lives. Only about 25% of people who run are caught. The cops have a 25% chance of catching the speeders. Is it worth risking civilian lives over a lone guy who was speeding on the road? But I do know that if we stop pursuing when a cop tries to pull someone over than there is no bite behind the bark per say. Cops would loose credibility and more people would start running knowing that they could get away. Something needs to be done to protect society. Fines need to be razed and new rules need to be made. I think that if police used better judgment about when to pursue, or how long they should pursue it could save innocent lives. Sometimes the bad guy gets away, but they can’t catch everybody even if they tried. If the police chose to chase at night only that would greatly reduce the chance of bystanders getting hurt. Less people are out at night and many of the high speeders are out at that time as well. Maybe if the police only pursued people for a certain amount of time before then deciding if they can catch them or not. There are things that can be done and there are definitely things that should be done.
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In regards to my colleagues article about thinking outside the box on police car chases I agree. Some other facts about the chases however though is the fact that police numbers right now due to the economy are way under. It is a lot easier to always catch the bad guy when the number of law enforcement officials is proportional to its jurisdiction. I looked on the Texas Department of Public Safety website the other day and they are wanting to hire 400 more officers in the next few years. 400, that really does show you how under staffed they are right now. I know in Colorado they have a no chase law that seems to be working for them very well. But, there should be steps put in place for which officers do call of a chase such as speed, neighborhood, other driver's safety and so on. On the yahoo the other day I saw a new spike strip they are testing out in which it is mounted to the officers vehicle and deploys on a stick that the officer can drive under the offenders wheels. With technology and thinking outside the box, I think the catch rate of 25% will begin to increase. Her comment about following for a certain amount of time though I do disagree with. The police got the numbers and can have cars with full gas tanks till the offender runs out. There should be no time limit on a chase. Safety obligations,yes! Time limit, no! What is this talk about raised fines? Really, have you had a ticket in the last few years, there already sky high. I know in Phoenix, AZ they have cameras on there highways that will send you a ticket in the mail just like red light cameras do now. There very spaced out and slow down the speeding through the area very well. The article had some good and bad points, but in the end I still agree with the article.
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