SHERIFF: Law enforcement pursuits are on the rise
By Brian Miller, Mecosta County Sheriff, bigrapidsnews.com
What is a law enforcement pursuit you ask? A vehicle pursuit is an event involving one or more law enforcement officers attempting to apprehend a suspect who is attempting to avoid arrest while operating a motor vehicle by using high speed driving or other evasive tactics such as driving off a highway, turning suddenly or driving in a legal manner but willfully failing to yield to an officer’s signal to stop.
What are considerations that need to be considered by a law enforcement officer when initiating a pursuit of a suspect vehicle?
Law enforcement officers are authorized to initiate a pursuit when it is reasonable to believe that a suspect is attempting to evade arrest or detention by fleeing in a vehicle. The following factors individually and collectively are taken into consideration in deciding whether to initiate a pursuit: Read more here
How to mitigate the risks inherent in pursuits
Every year, hundreds of innocent citizens are killed or injured in high-speed pursuits. While the fleeing suspect certainly bears responsibility, these incidents can result in millions of dollars in lawsuits and legal settlements for police agencies.
Many of the collisions that result in innocent lives being taken could be avoided with concerted efforts to de-escalate pursuit events or to avoid them altogether. In addition to police training, pursuit management technology from StarChase can help.
StarChase’s GPS tagging and tracking system allows suspects to be traced and apprehended without being pursued at dangerous speeds. In fact, the tags are shown to change suspect behavior stemming from pursuit-related events. An NIJ-funded field test that studied StarChase technology found that “on average, a tagged fleeing suspect slowed to within 10 miles of the posted speed limit in less than 2 minutes, reducing the risk for a crash.”
