Several things:

First, Blackrado, if you pay better attention you'll see that there is a gard rail on BOTH sides of the lane, so there is no danger of the car crossing into oncomming traffic. The TVI and various other maneuvers requrie a great deal of specialized training, which some officers have, and others dont. Only officers trained in the maneuver will attempt it, and if you did the research, you'd find it is the safest method avalible for stopping a fleeing suspect. There is a very low probability of serious injury to the suspect, an even lower probability of injury to the officer and an EVEN LOWER probability of injury to other motorists.

You don't have to agree with the choices we make, but unless you've been there then you won't understand. We get a split second to make a decision, and the rest of the world gets as long as they want to disect it. Stopping the pursuits as quickly as possible (TVI or other) is the ONLY way to ensure the safey of the other motorists on the road. If we aborted the pursuit and that mustang side-swiped your wife's car a mile down the road and her and your daughter were killed, I think you'd see it differently. We aim to prevent that type of situation.

Chingon, the box method you mentioned is still used occasionally. However the situation must call for that maneuver specifically. When you attempt something like that it takes a high degree of presicion by a minimum of three officers to pull it off. And then you have at least three officers at risk, as opposed to the TVI where there is only one.

Hit Man X, We werent going after a "car" as you say. We were chasing a dangerous felon who presented life-threatining danger to himself, other motorists on the road, and to the general populace should he elude us.

No one asked how he stole the car. Suffice to say he was armed and clearly unstable.


Hopefully I have answered the questions and alieviated some of the concerns. High-Speed Pursuits are a hotly debated topic everywhere we look. Sometimes they do go bad, but 99% of the time the bad guy goes to jail, and no one is seriously hurt.

Please excuse my spelling its 2:45 AM and I'm needin sleep.

 

Not a problem, I'm not bashing law enforcement but still running down the freeway weaving in traffic like that is stupid. You and I as well as everyone else knows that. Granted the person is a felon, it would make more sense to me to avoid a high speed chase to begin with.

Would the person not cause less harm on the street versus in a 3500lbs+ car speeding all over town running lights and what not?

Also, I see more reason to chase a felon over a punkass car theif but is it worth it at the time. I had no other info on the chase aside from just speeding after a car...my statement was premature I'll concur with but I was limited on info. Hell, what if a squad car got out of control and hurt someone? The reprocussions (sp? it's 3.30am) of that to a citizen would be insane. Lemme put it this way, if you hit me chasing a suspect you'd be out of a job and the city would be paying me a LOT of money.

Still it's plain silly to me to risk all that.