Police driving practices under scrutiny as crashes kill officers, bystanders

[Jilly_in_VA]

Emergency driving is an often dangerous part of modern policing. Even though police departments in recent decades have sought to restrict the deadliest kind — pursuits — hundreds of fatal chases involving police officers are recorded every year across the U.S., and many victims are innocent bystanders, experts said.

According to Chicago Police Department data NBC News obtained through public records requests and first reported, the city has seen a significant amount of wreckage from police pursuits and emergency response crashes.

From August 2017 to the end of last year, the department recorded two dozen fatal chases and 617 crashes during pursuits, the data show.

Fatal pursuits in Chicago far outnumbered those reported during the same period in the country’s two largest cities — six in Los Angeles and two in New York City — according to Fatal Encounters, the independently run database that tracks every deadly interaction with police in the country. (The New York Police Department didn’t respond to a request for confirmation. A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson referred to the department’s public records unit, which hasn’t yet provided data.)

During the same period, data show, Chicago police recorded 729 emergency response calls that resulted in crashes. Twenty-one civilians and 225 officers were injured.

It’s harder to determine how often officers responding to emergency calls are involved in fatal crashes. No agency tracks nationwide data, said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina. But there are examples of officers’ fatally striking people while responding to these calls.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-driving-practices-scrutiny-crashes-kill-officers-bystanders-rcna30416
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A year and a half ago, a man was killed in Knoxville TN by a cop speeding w/o lights or siren, as he pulled out from a stop sign and the cop came around a blind curve. It was 3 am and foggy. Believe it or not, the man was cited for "failure to yield" and the cop was exonerated.

[leftyladyfrommo]

1. You don't want to hit a cop car. It always ends badly.

I am a very careful old lady driver. I don't want to hit anybody.

[ck4829]

4. A shame the Uvalde shooter didn't do that

[Chainfire]

7. If a cop car hit your car while you were legally parked, it would somehow end up being

your fault.

[TheRealNorth]

2. It's a tough call in my opinion.

If cops don't pursue and every criminal knows it, everyone will try to run. I suppose you have to weigh each situation (ie. Are you pursuing a dangerous criminal? Is the car stolen? Etc.).

[Chainfire]

3. Anybody who ever watched The Blues Brothers know that police should never become in involved

in high speed chases. In every police car is a radio, and there is not vehicle on the planet that can outrun that. (yet)

High speed chases, with lights and sirens, must be an enormous thrill, 'till it ain't.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. Some cops

really like to play cowboy. It would be smarter of them to radio ahead and have someone else pick the driver up, rather than chasing them all over hell and half of east wherever. In larger jurisdictions you can usually do that, or sometimes if it's not busy, in smaller ones. And what is the point of a traffic stop for a totally minor offense? Get the license number and send the guy a summons. Some cities are starting to see the wisdom of that.

[MyOwnPeace]

5. Couple of great points:

1. A drunk driver is a dangerous driver. A drunk driver being chased by a cop is an accident looking for a place to happen.........

2. There is not a car in the world that can out-run Motorola (use the radio - set up stops......).

Also, consider police "training" - ..........

They are required hours per year at a range with weapons. MANY cops retire without ever having fired their weapons once.

They spend 90% of their 'work time' behind the wheel - and for a large majority the last 'driver training' they had was when they were at the Police Academy.

[Jedi Guy]

8. The onus is on police departments to have very clear guidelines on when they will pursue.

The department I used to work for did exactly that. The policy was that pursuits had to be authorized by a sergeant or above, and pursuit would only be an option if the suspect had used a weapon in the commission of the crime. So if some dumbshit carjacked someone at gun- or knifepoint, pursuit was an option. If no weapon was used, then no pursuit. You only pursue when you know your suspect has displayed that they're willing to use a weapon against the public.

On a pursuit, officers were required to keep their lights and sirens going at all times, even if it meant waking people up at 3 am. They were also required to stop at red lights or stop signs even if the jerk they were chasing didn't. On any given pursuit there were normally enough cops to box the bad guy in, and if the weather allowed, the air units absolutely loved being the eye in the sky for the "dirtwalkers."

Pursuits can be done much more safely than they have been in the past. Police departments and the city's leadership just have to decide to do it that way.