Posted on 02/19/2023 7:24:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In Los Angeles this week, two police pursuits ended in collisions that killed an innocent driver and badly injured another. In the San Fernando Valley early Tuesday morning, fleeing robbery suspects crashed into a car driven by a 19-year-old student at Cal State Northridge, killing him. The driver of the pursued car was arrested, but his passenger escaped. A rifle was found in their car.
On Thursday evening in South Los Angeles, a man driving a stolen pickup truck fled from police when they tried to stop him. He ran a red light and crashed into a car, critically injuring the woman driver. These incidents came two weeks after another horrific collision in the San Fernando Valley in which two men were killed when their car was struck by a car fleeing the police.
The California Highway Patrol tracks statistics on police chases throughout the state, including those involving its own personnel and those of local police and sheriff’s departments. In 2020, the most recent year for which a report is available, there were 11,650 police pursuits in California, 2,478 of which involved collisions. Of these, 2% resulted in fatal injuries, 35% resulted in non-fatal injuries, and 63% resulted in property damage only.
Among the 61 deaths resulting from pursuits, 49 were either a driver or passenger in the pursued vehicle, and 12 were of uninvolved parties. Of those with non-fatal injuries, 68% were drivers or passengers in pursued vehicles, 26% were uninvolved parties, and 6% were police officers.
The natural reaction to a death or injury to an innocent bystander resulting from a pursuit is to question whether police should have been chasing in the first place. Had the pursuit not occurred, the innocent person would not have been killed or injured, therefore the police should not engage
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Those idiots would have been driving the same way once the cops found them.
It is not the police’s fault.
That’s what sirens are for. We can’t deny the safety of innocents but we haven’t had this problem in the past. It won’t get better. Timed is on the side of the slippery slope.
If you watch some of the police show like OPLive, there are questions on whether the police should pursue. When is it really necessary to chase a driver? There are times it seems better to just get the tag number and get the driver later under a warrant or something. Especially in traffic that is moderate or in a town with narrow streets. If a driver runs a red light, should the police put lives on the line to chase that driver down? Like I said...questions.
“The day may arrive when technology solves the problem of criminals escaping by car, and, to a small degree, it already has. There have been several instances in which the General Motors OnStar system has been used to disable vehicles fleeing the police. Such a system might one day be incorporated into all vehicles...”
But:
“As Thomas Sowell instructed, there are no solutions, only trade-offs.”
Fleeing drivers should be treated as active shooters.
We’ve had this problem in the past. The pursuit debate has been going on since at least the 80s, and probably should have been going on longer. Honestly in our current world where most police forces have helicopters or planes there’s really no reason for it. Pursue until air surveillance gets on them, then beg off and track them safely. This Smokey and the Bandit crap is just for ego.
My question is this: Is it worth risking innocent lives to chase someone who will be immediately out on bail and likely serve no time? I think that is the true conundrum.
What ever happened to the Felony Murder Rule? Very appropriate in these cases.
Tag numbers don’t help if the car is stolen.
No victim, no crime.
That’s what sirens are for.
BINGO most people have brain fog when driving here in LA on the freeway a cop can have a siren on for a half mile before the car he’s following pulls over or takes a off ramp.
The late nights chases that crash is because people not thinking where the siren is at OH it must be a few blocks away duh.
“Those idiots would have been driving the same way once the cops found them.”
That’s ridiculous. Of course somebody is going to take more chances while being pursued.
It all depends on the reason for the pursuit, and if the vehicle has been reported stolen.
It only makes sense to pursue if penalties are severe and enforced.
The CHP turned off sirens and continued the chase but the perps re-entered the freeway in the wrong direction and struck our son as he entered the freeway on the same ramp. They had robbed a store hurt the clerk and were on probation. Our son was disabled by the impact and now uses a prosthetic leg. Neither vehicle saw the other until the crash. The perps got more jail time but are out now. The cause IMO was that the police tried to be nice to these fleeing persons. They could have prevented their return to the freeway but they had not done anything seriously wrong at that time. This is BS as they were risking lives every minute of the chase. The police (CHP) thought they were doing OK until they plowed head on into our sons motorcycle then they were very consoling and sorry. That was it.
There is also the issue of how many rape/robbery/murder victims will suffer if the criminals know police will never pursue them.
At some point police will have small drones that can follow a car while the cops can fall back and follow from a distance. Not perfect, but better than chasing someone into an innocent family’s vehicle or house.
“At some point police will have small drones that can follow a car while the cops can fall back and follow from a distance. “
Right now, militaries have small drones which can attach themselves to a fleeing car and detonate a shaped charge into the car.
Wow. I don’t really have words for how wrong all that was. So many ways they could have handled that all better.
One thing I did not mention, how this changed all of our lives. We suddenly had a kid who just graduated from college who needed around the clock care and rehab. He only barely survived but now is living a successful life — married and working in a computer oriented business. He is still discovering things he can do with his limitations, like car camping and flying drones and cooking. We have discovered how much we love him and are happily retired living nearby.
Soon after this accident the Supreme Court judged that police could use deadly force in stopping criminals. This will help if it percolates down to forces like the CHP.
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