Police Chase
Imagine being a police officer doing your daily routine job. You are in a patrol car on the highway, watching the cars and trucks drive by. You are also looking for speeders to warn them to be more careful and maybe you'll ticket them. It has been a very boring day for you, since you have only been called on your radio once, and it was for an accident (fender bender). Almost at the end of your shift, a blue car drives by going ninety miles an hour, but you know the speed limit is only fifty-five miles an hour. You pull the patrol car out of the gravel area that you had been sitting in and you start to follow the car. You put your lights on and catch up to them. After a few minutes you pull the person over. You get out of the car and start walking over towards the blue car. You are right about to talk to the driver and he drives off, leaving nothing but dust in your face. Now, the adrenaline is pumping in your body, but what should you do? You could call for backup or follow the blue car. Anything could happen. How far should you actually go? This is the question that will be answered in this paper. I will explain what police pursuit is and some different things officers do during a pursuit. I will also give some st
atistics about the fatalities that have happened in a police pursuit. I will also illustrate my opinion about how far police pursuits should go. A true definition of a police pursuit "occurs when a police officer attempts to stop a vehicle and the driver of the car refuses to obey the officer" (Solgen, 1). At this point, the policeman pursues for the purpose of stopping the vehicle or being able to identify the car. The police officer should most likely be in a patrol car, so that the driver is aware that it is an officer. In a pursuit, the speed may vary. 'High speeds are potentially more dangerous, but even low or moderate speeds can create substantial risks in congested areas"(Nugent, 1). There are many factors that need to be considered by the officer to decide whether he or she should initiate, continue, or discontinue the police pursuit. These factors should be able to insure "public safety to the community"(Solgen 2). They also will limit the police officers on how far they can go with the pursuit. One of the main factors that officers and law enforcement should be aware of is the nature of the offense. This is used to see how bad the original offense actually is. Police officers have to have reason to believe a criminal offense has been or is about to be committed. For example, the police would act differently to a pursuit that was started because of a speeding violation than a pursuit that was brought about because of a shooting and the suspect was running from the police officers. Another factor that is important is the age and race of the driver. This is somewhat like profiling. One other factor to be considered by the police officer is the manner in which the driver is operating his or her vehicle. If the driver is driving recklessly at great speeds or if the officer thinks that the driver is a hazard to society than the officer will most
Some common words found in the essay are:
Saturdays Sundays, , Pursuit Report, Solicitor Ontario, Police CollegeSolgen, police pursuit, police officer, police pursuits, police officers, patrol car, blue car, insure public safety, pursuit police, pursuits 1998, pursued vehicle, stop vehicle, police pursuits 1998,
Approximate Word count = 1270
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
