I was sitting around (after almost two straight days of home improvement ****...)having a beer watching one of those cheesy video shows. Let me first say I am all about stoping dangerous criminals and high speed chases.
However when is enough enough in a high speed chase? Some sherriff did a pitman manuver in the middle of town which destoryed his car, the car he was chasing and some pickup that the stolen car hit. (they were all fords so no biggie LOL).
When do you just get the plate number backoff and find him latter. Sometimes I think it gets out of control and the police need to backoff and pick the guy up later when they are speeding through the middle of town.
I understand in some cases you need to stop someone, but the only thing he did was steal a car and in this situation, the police knew that.
Your thoughts?

 

I understand what your saying. But if the car is stolen, its kinda hard to sit at his house and wait for him to get home.

 

On the other hand Joe Q. Taxpayer just bought three new cars because some dumb cop wanted to play Action Hero.

 

I'm not a 100% sure how their insurance works but, I think the insurance company bought 3 cars.

 

Which raises all rates, so we pay for it in the end. I agree with Mike, back off till it is safe. Criminals usually resurface on thier own.

Mike, you know you are a FORD fan at heart, but I will let you keep your cover on this board....

Ken

 

Yeah but uninsured motorist have a greater effect on out premiums.

 

Sure they do, but the majority of the uninsured motorist are (moderator edit, we need to get off the race card blame game)...never will become legal or get insurance..

 

Personnally, I think they need snipers in the Helicopters. If the car is stolen and you're runnin' they should aim to kill.


Ryan K.

 

Man that is a pretty good idea. Would be a lot cheaper!

 

EDIT: SIGNATURE PICTURE WAAAAAY TOO BIG
500X150 Max
8 lines of text

 

From my end of it, less then half the time when someone is running from the cops are they actually in their own car or if they are in their car, that car is rarely ever correctly registered (right owner, right address, etc) so having the plate is about as helpful as having one of those little umbrellas from a foo-foo drink while walking in a downpour.......and if the car is stolen, having the registered owners info is useless since they are not the one driving it obviously.....so in your last scenario, why would they back off if they knew the car was stolen just because they had the license plate info?
Also known as "doing his job"

 

ok ok,....Ya,.......eh,........ya know,..............SHOOT 'EM!

 

OK, so it's a cop's job to do as much dammage as humanly possible while trying to get a suspect to stop? Not likely.

I understand you have a lot of inside info in this area, Darrin, and I am not trying to stir the pot. Far from it. I am just saying there are other ways to try to get the guy to stop than destroying 3 cars and putting anyone around them in danger while super cop tries to stop some low-life car thief in a populated area.

 

Without knowing any of the facts surrounding the chase, it's easy to point out problems when things go wrong.

We have no idea what the traffic situation was further down the street. Could have been coming up on a school or hospital or a bunch of Jerry's kids sniffing flowers next to the street.. We also have no idea what they had in terms of personel to apprehend this guy. For some reason crime doesn't stop when a police chase is going on.

It's nice to try and blame the cop that tried to stop it but, the truth is. If the dirty pirate hooker would have kept his dick skinners off of someone elses car it would not have happened. So now instead of blaming law enforcement for stopping the crook. Write your congressman or senator to put a bill in effect to castrate criminals so they cant breed and pollute our already dirty gene pool.

 

Ryan'sSS for president!

 

Unless you were there (cuz i wasn't) none of us has ANY way of knowing all the circumstances in this situation nor what was going on in the heads of everyone involved, etc.......no cop was "trying to do as much damage as humanly possible" with regard to anything.

Considering I am not familiar with this particular situation, I was merely responding to your cop-hating statement about "some dumb cop wanting to play action hero"..........And I can tell you that I can't think of one time where I have known or seen a cop intentionaly damage or destroy other's property just "for fun" while in pursuit of a criminal............and I am curious, what would your feelings be if that was your car that had been stolen?


Currently in the State of Washington, you must be convicted of Auto theft SEVEN ******* times before you are sent to prison....so someone could steal six of our cars and not spend one flippin day in prison. It ain't the cops that are the problem it is the LACK of teeth in the laws/legal system.

 

Seven times that is crazy...I am all for stopping them I just think if you are filming it from a Police Helicopter, you can probably wait to a less populated spot or a big highway. Not blaming the cop either, just maybe the policy for the highspeed chase. I am all for getting **** of the street. I am just not so sure that was least means possible.

 

I think they ought to have the same penalty for Auto Theft as they used to have for Horse Theft...Hanging!

 

+1


my understanding is that many of the police departments have rules for wether or not to try manuvers like that, as well as dictating that in a high speed chase, to back off, follow just close enough to keep track (by staying on the guys tail, it encourages them to go faster)

I am also under the impression that they won't typicly chase motorcycles (due partly to there capability, also to the fact that if they try to run, they usualy die in the process)

 

We should all get a chance to run them over standing still.

The police pick a lucky winner to got 35+ head on into the felon! What a blast!

Tony.