25 April 2008
Are Police Chases Always The Right Thing To Do?
Posted by tom under: Life And Work .
When does a police chase have a positive outcome?
We are always hearing in the news about police chases. Some case of the police pursuing a motorist for one reason or another. The outcome is often disastrous though, of course, the police have a reason to stop the motorist. Perhaps the driver was speeding and refuses to stop when the police car turns on its lights or maybe the police have spotted a license plate which is on their list of stolen cars. Sometimes the police are pursuing a suspected bank robber or criminal but in any case, the minute a police chase starts, all other motorists in the same area are put at risk.
There is no doubt the person being pursued may present a threat to society. The driver could be drunk or on drugs, which endangers everybody. It could even be that the driver of the vehicle being pursued is holding a hostage. A polcie chase can be for so many reasons and it may not always be clear to the rest of us.
So often police chases that make the news resolve in a terrible conclusion. When the pursued driver is so desperate to evade the police, he or she must have so much to lose by being stopped that they are prepared to risk everything. The question is, if the pursued driver is being chased because the vehicle has been reported stolen, is it worth risking the lives of other motorists in a police chase that could end in a high-speed collision which results in the injury or death of innocent motorists?
Some people will argue that no-holds barred pursuit is just the police doing their job and protecting the public from dangerous people who are on the road. The problems always arise when innocent motorists become involved, if only because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the suspect tries to flee.
So what if the suspect is without a driver’s license? Maybe he has no insurance and he can’t afford either. If his tail lights aren’t working he shouldn’t be on the road. When he is on his way home in the early hours going home from his minimum wage fast-food job if the police stop him he loses his car and his job. The suspect driver is desperate. He might be a teenager and uses poor judgment and then a police chase ensues, supposedly to stop a criminal. The driver speeds up and ends up losing control of his vehicle. The result is that the driver is dead. Did he really deserve such a fate and what about any other motorists who become involved? Should we be happy to know that driver is off the road?
There are certainly some drivers out there on the road who does warrant a police chase. If the driver has kidnapped a child they clearly must be stopped whatever the circumstances in order to rescue the child.
So how do we decide and where do we draw the line? We should make our opinions known about when a police chase is justified? We are all citizens of the community and we need to let our police force know where we consider the boundaries lie.
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