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Police car chases

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I've nothing against emergency driving at all,
Fair enough, it's just that some of your earlier posts made me think otherwise, but thanks for clearing that up.

I was responding to OP and saying that some fast emergency driving is inappropriate for the "crime". I don't think anyone should risk being involved in an accident/incident just to stop someone who is on their phone.
If you look earlier in the thread you'll see where I mention how I handle mobile phone using drivers and realise that it's not all of us that do as the OP said. In fact I'd still stand by my earlier comments that the majority of police drivers go by the book and are great drivers. The people who let us down are very much in a tiny minority.

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Fair enough, it's just that some of your earlier posts made me think otherwise, but thanks for clearing that up.

If you look earlier in the thread you'll see where I mention how I handle mobile phone using drivers and realise that it's not all of us that do as the OP said. In fact I'd still stand by my earlier comments that the majority of police drivers go by the book and are great drivers. The people who let us down are very much in a tiny minority.

Yes they are a minority but inevitably, they are the ones who get noticed and doing this doesn't help. I don't for one moment think it's all police drivers

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How can South Yorks. police defend their actions in chasing a car at high speeds through a residential area

 

What a stupid question. So if a group of people robbed a bank and escaped in a car, the police should stop chasing them as soon as they turn into a housing estate?

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What a stupid question. So if a group of people robbed a bank and escaped in a car, the police should stop chasing them as soon as they turn into a housing estate?
Yes.........

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Yes.........

 

Oh dear. :suspect:

 

And you don't think that would see a rise in crime? People would hold up shops etc around housing estates, then just flee into them by car and get away everytime.

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Oh dear. :suspect:

 

And you don't think that would see a rise in crime? People would hold up shops etc around housing estates, then just flee into them by car and get away everytime.

You can't have high speed car chases through busy housing estates, the police just don't do that, it's common sense. You can't risk mowing people down in order to apprehend anyone in that scenario and that's why they have helicopter.

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the police just don't do that, it's common sense.

 

Of course they do. Have you never seen Traffic Cops on the BBC?

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Of course they do. Have you never seen Traffic Cops on the BBC?

 

And how do you explain to the grieving parents of a child who's been hit by a speeding police car on a housing estate that her death was 'worthwhile' because the police caught a couple of thieves and retrieved a few thousand pounds for a bank?

 

I'm sure they'll think her death was well worth it, considering... :loopy:

 

What's money as weighed against human life?

 

StarSparkle

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And how do you explain to the grieving parents of a child who's been hit by a speeding police car on a housing estate that her death was 'worthwhile' because the police caught a couple of thieves and retrieved a few thousand pounds for a bank?

I'm sure they'll think her death was well worth it, considering... :loopy:

What's money as weighed against human life?

StarSparkle

Everything we do in life contains some element of risk. How far do you take it - never chase criminals just in case, however small the odds, somebody gets hurt?

 

Criminals have to be apprehended. In other countries, they are more practical about this - when somebody is killed by a Police vehicle in a chase, the criminal being chased is held legally responsible for the crash and the death - that's how it should be here as well.

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Everything we do in life contains some element of risk. How far do you take it - never chase criminals just in case, however small the odds, somebody gets hurt?

 

Criminals have to be apprehended. In other countries, they are more practical about this - when somebody is killed by a Police vehicle in a chase, the criminal being chased is held legally responsible for the crash and the death - that's how it should be here as well.

It's no good holding the criminal responsible since by being a criminal he is irresponsible anyway. The police still have a responsibility to the public to keep them safe by not tearing around housing estates which will may lead to the criminal driving more dangerously out of desperation to escape. Any form of accident involving innocent passers by is too big a risk in order to apprehend a criminal.

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It's no good holding the criminal responsible since by being a criminal he is irresponsible anyway.
The fact that a person committing a crime may not be the most responsible of people does not change that fact that if they hadn't committed the offence in the first place the use of vehicles would not have been required.

The police still have a responsibility to the public to keep them safe by not tearing around housing estates which will may lead to the criminal driving more dangerously out of desperation to escape. Any form of accident involving innocent passers by is too big a risk in order to apprehend a criminal.
The police are very responsible when it comes to driving. The police driver training is the highest standards out of all the emergency services in the UK, so the best drivers tend to be police officers. And the driving policy in constantly being reviewed and monitored (there are even more changes that came in as of 1st of August to increase the safety of everyone on the roads, sadly these cannot be put on a public forum).

 

Each incident is handled separately and the decision on how to react isn't a blanket one, it's decided individually each time. The safety of the public is always taken in to consideration as is the safety of the officers involved and even the outcome for the person that's the cause of the pursuit. If there's even the smallest of reasons as to why a pursuit should not start or should end then it's acted on. I've been called off by comms in the past and even called a pursuit off myself when I felt it was no longer justified for me to continue with it, and this was before it became dangerous.

 

The days of free for all chases and driving like you see on many films and TV programs is long gone, there are a hell of a lot of rules and regulations in place that are there to protect everyone. If these are broken the officer involved loses their driving authority and can face disciplinary action. On top of that, driver training has improved considerably too and the standards required to be given certain authorities has risen too.

 

Not all police drivers can use emergency equipment and not all can pursue vehicles either. It really is taken very seriously and it's not worth doing something you shouldn't, supervision really do come down hard on you.

 

It is unfortunate when accidents happen and unfortunately occasionally they do, however I don't think there are many that would want the emergency services to stop providing their vehicle responses, it certainly wouldn't be long before offenders realised this and took serious advantage.

 

It would also be nice to see members of the public working with emergency service drivers. While the emergency service driver is responsible for their driving, members of the public can help by keeping alert and reacting properly when they see emergency vehicles behind them. It's amazing how many people don't see the bluelights, don't hear the sirens or just ignore them. Some people don't seem to know what to do and can make the situation worse. Obviously emergency drivers are trained to deal with this and should react accordingly, but if some people put more thought in to their driving (and road positioning when in traffic or stopped by red lights etc.) then we'd all benefit.

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The fact that a person committing a crime may not be the most responsible of people does not change that fact that if they hadn't committed the offence in the first place the use of vehicles would not have been required.

The police are very responsible when it comes to driving. The police driver training is the highest standards out of all the emergency services in the UK, so the best drivers tend to be police officers. And the driving policy in constantly being reviewed and monitored (there are even more changes that came in as of 1st of August to increase the safety of everyone on the roads, sadly these cannot be put on a public forum).

 

Each incident is handled separately and the decision on how to react isn't a blanket one, it's decided individually each time. The safety of the public is always taken in to consideration as is the safety of the officers involved and even the outcome for the person that's the cause of the pursuit. If there's even the smallest of reasons as to why a pursuit should not start or should end then it's acted on. I've been called off by comms in the past and even called a pursuit off myself when I felt it was no longer justified for me to continue with it, and this was before it became dangerous.

 

The days of free for all chases and driving like you see on many films and TV programs is long gone, there are a hell of a lot of rules and regulations in place that are there to protect everyone. If these are broken the officer involved loses their driving authority and can face disciplinary action. On top of that, driver training has improved considerably too and the standards required to be given certain authorities has risen too.

 

Not all police drivers can use emergency equipment and not all can pursue vehicles either. It really is taken very seriously and it's not worth doing something you shouldn't, supervision really do come down hard on you.

 

It is unfortunate when accidents happen and unfortunately occasionally they do, however I don't think there are many that would want the emergency services to stop providing their vehicle responses, it certainly wouldn't be long before offenders realised this and took serious advantage.

 

It would also be nice to see members of the public working with emergency service drivers. While the emergency service driver is responsible for their driving, members of the public can help by keeping alert and reacting properly when they see emergency vehicles behind them. It's amazing how many people don't see the bluelights, don't hear the sirens or just ignore them. Some people don't seem to know what to do and can make the situation worse. Obviously emergency drivers are trained to deal with this and should react accordingly, but if some people put more thought in to their driving (and road positioning when in traffic or stopped by red lights etc.) then we'd all benefit.

 

 

very well said.

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