police chase....

[Scott]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7711276.stm

So let me get this right...

police travel at over 120mph to get somewhere to pursue some 18 year old cocain taking driver (for reasons not outlined in the article).

mondeo then goes down the motorway the wrong way, police car doesnt follow. Horrible head on accident occurs...

then , the officers are questioned over the speed at which they traveled to persue or get to a position to persue, by the innocent victims solicitor representing the family who were innocently driving the correct way.

is it me or is that f*cked up? Police should just say, fine, we wont persue anyone ever, as soon as they get in a car, we'll just let them drive away, because ultimately it will always be our fault if there is a crash.

That sucks.

If the driver of the mondeo hadnt died for example, and was held accountable, do you think the police woul dbe getting asked the same questions? Is it not perhaps that its just the family of the innocent victims looking to find blame when the person to blame has died also?

[BigTin]

God damn solicitors looking to grab a penny from anyone they can, they seem to have no shame at all.

[Sheaf]

Aren't they supposed to have helicopters to chase cars so they don't have to pursue at speed?

Although it's wrong to blame the police when it was ultimately the mondeo driver's fault, I can also see that by chasing them they are making the driver more likely to do something stupid, such as go the wrong way down a road. At the end of the day, yes it is probably better to let them get away than to increase the risk of them killing innocent people.

I guess it does depend on why they were chasing them in the first place and whether trying to catch them was worth the risk.

[Punx0r]

Sure, why the bother not just let smack addicts get away! Some forces are already not allowed to chase motorbikes or underage drivers in case the darlings hurt themselves.

Everyone complains that decent folk are at the mercy of scumbags, yet some people want to make the situation worse.

Helicopters are great, but cost millions of pounds to run, and can usually only be used to assist ground forces.

The police did nowt wrong IMO.

[SubCat001]

I really don't see what other course of action they could have taken. They pursued until it was no longer safe to do so.

If the Police hadn't of took up the chase, and they'd still crashed, no doubt there still would have been an enquiry.

We ask a lot of our Police force and expect them to make rapid life changing decisions. Sometimes these may not be the right ones, at which times we should support these officers, unless they have been unduly reckless or negligent. It's a sad time when someone charged with protecting us, is being quizzed for making the right choice. No wonder the Police can't police properly if every decision is scrutinised.

[radddogg]

Some forces are already not allowed to chase motorbikes or underage drivers in case the darlings hurt themselves.

That seems more of a reason for them to chase them, might do the world a favour and kill themselves

[TomcatDan]

Aren't they supposed to have helicopters to chase cars so they don't have to pursue at speed?

Don't forget
a) Many forces share a helicopter (Hant's for example shares ours) and it can only be in one place at time.
b) Helicopters take time to launch, and then arrive on scene
c) Helicopters are governed where they can operate, for example near controlled airspace
d) Helicopters often can't operate in bad weather

If a helicopters available then the ground units can back off, if it's not then they need to maintain visual contact after all. I agree with what you're saying about sometimes calling off pursuits if things get too out of hand, but it sounds like when things got out of hand they DID stop the pursuit. Don't forget he collided with the other car AFTER merging with the motorway in the wrong direction, and the police had abandoned the pursuit at the roundabout before he entered the slip road.

At the end of the day, the reason we pay council tax is for a Police force that stops criminals, to do that, there's usually an element of risk involved regardless of the situation be it a traffic incident, a firearms incident, a routine stop and search, or a crackhead off his face driving like a tit.

[Punx0r]

Some of them already know that if they drive dangerously, the police will back off. So that's exactly what they do, and get away to boot.

Some forces are already not allowed to chase motorbikes or underage drivers in case the darlings hurt themselves.

That seems more of a reason for them to chase them, might do the world a favour and kill themselves

My thoughts exactly.

[Sheaf]

I wasn't saying they should let everyone get away as soon as they run... I was just saying that it's the chase itself which encourages the criminals to do something stupid, I mean the only reason they went the wrong way was because they were chased.

It's hard to define what they should and shouldn't do, hence there's an enquiry. At the end of the day two innocent people died because of the chase, you can see where the investigation has come from.

IMO it depends on the crime they're chasing them for. If it's two murderers who are likely to be a danger to others then yes it's worth the risk. If it's two druggies that are probably going to OD before they're 30 anyway then maybe it's not. it's also down to the judgement of the officer and how dangerous the situation is, or how likely it is they'll do something stupid.
They backed off when the person did something dangerous, but if they chase everyone until they do something stupid then surely they're driving them to do that?

I'm not saying they should or shouldn't have chased them, one news article doesn't give anyone the info to judge that, I'm just saying that it's worth looking at both sides.

[SubCat001]

I wasn't saying they should let everyone get away as soon as they run... I was just saying that it's the chase itself which encourages the criminals to do something stupid, I mean the only reason they went the wrong way was because they were chased.

It's only an assumption to say they wouldn't have crashed without being chased. How often to do we hear of fatal accidents involving drink or drugs? All too often. Sometimes the driver might have even been driving the wrong way down a carriage way too.

Yes there is no doubt that in a chase situation, the pursued will do their best to lose the pursuer, but criminals will often take risks with or without provocation.