Police Pursuits Essay -- Law Enforcement

There are virtually an unlimited amount of aspects about police work that places them in harm’s way every day. Some of which officers are trained to mitigate and exercise some form of control over while others are mostly out of police control. Vehicle pursuit is one instance where police have little control over and thus must adopt a mostly reactionary response rather than a proactive approach. Police officer training and preparation for such pursuits are conducted during their initial phases of training and some receive advanced Emergency Vehicle Operational and Control (EVOC) training that they will bring back to their respective agencies to provide training for the rest of their fellow officers. This is only in response to an increasingly dangerous and costly increase to the amount of police vehicle pursuits over approximately the last decade. But why are criminals increasingly running from police? Since the inception of police as a profession, the ‘bad guys’ have always tried to escape justice form the ‘good guys’ in an attempt to continue their lawless and criminal activity. However as times have changed from horseback chases in rural country landscapes to heavy and speeding vehicles in urban settings, the danger to innocent life has increased exponentially. Some has argued that a ‘contempt of cop’ attitude adopted by police in where the officer attempting to make the stop is offended or slighted and therefore acts aggressively to make an apprehension. A possible reason for this is the adrenalin rush rendering officers to adopt an aggressive and overly focused mindset causing them to experience myopia and auditory lockout (Schultz, Hudak, Alpert, 2009) Others claim that an increased lack of authority and an increase in se... .... Until courts and the public start shifting the volume of blame towards the suspect who failed to stop for police, suspects will continue to put us, the law abiding public, at risk. Works Cited Alpert, G. & Smith, W. (2008). Police Pursuits After Scott v. Harris: Far from Ideal. Police Foundation:. Ideas in American Policing. June, 2008. Hill, J. (July 2002) High-Speed Police Pursuits: Dangers, Dynamics, and Risk Reduction. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. July 2002. Oyez. (n.d.) Scott v. Harris. Retrieved on April 03, 2012 from http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000- 2009/2006/2006_05_1631 Schultz, D., Hudak, E., Alpert, G. (2009) Emergency Driving and Pursuits: The Officer’s Perspective. FBI Law Enforcement Bulliten. April 2009. Scott v. Harris. 550 U.S.___(2007). Retrieved on April 02, 2012 from http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1631.pdf