Police Pursuit: Need for New Technology

Police Pursuit: The Need for New Technologies

The cars flying through the air, flipping over, exploding on impact makes for great scenes in movies or on television. In real life police pursuits are dangerous, even deadly events that happen with more frequency now than ever before, resulting “in about 350 deaths per year” (Hill, 14). The need to develop new technologies is clear, and the technology is now becoming available that will enable the police to shut a car off before the pursuit began would decrease the dangers to all involved in police pursuits, ending some pursuits before the chase even begins. Is enough being done to lessen the danger to the public, the police, and the suspects being pursued? The data says no.

One organization estimates that 2,500 persons die each year as a result of police pursuits and that another 55,000 are injured […] law enforcement source argue that these estimates are exaggerated, they concede that the 350 figure may be to low (Hill, 14).

Any death or injury cause by police pursuits are to many, and need to be eliminated through policy changes, the use of new technologies and training.
Training police in the pursuit procedures needs to be improved and the period of time in training needs to be lengthened. In a recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice “60 percent of the agencies reported providing entry-level driving training at their academies” (Police). The training for seasoned police officers isn’t any better “…averaged only slightly more than 3 hours per year” (Police). This training mainly consists of pursuit driving, Such as high-speed obstacle course driving. Very little if any attention is given to when to pursue or when to halt a pursuit that is in progress, thereby endangering the lives of police officers, the criminal and citizens who may become involved in the pursuit through an accident.
Deciding when to pursue and when to halt an ongoing pursuit is a policy many police departments lack concise direction. Leaving the decision up to the officers in the patrols cars to decide if to pursue or not. The decision to pursue happens very quickly, in most cases, the officer turns his lights on to pull a suspect over, the suspect speeds up to avoid the police and the chase is on, all this happens in less than a minute. When involved in a pursuit some police departments require that the officer stay in constant contact with his or her supervisor. As one Supervisor explained “Sometimes if you’re involved in a pursuit you can get tunnel vision. You’re focused on stopping the suspect and you’re too emotionally involved to clearly judge whether or not to continue” (Police dept). Leaving this decision with the supervisor eliminates the bad decisions caused by being emotionally involved in the chase. Therefore, the decision to halt the pursuit or use other technologies to continue the pursuit can be made by someone who is not emotionally involved in the chase.
The technologies in use today in police pursuits can be helpful in allowing the police units on the ground to slow down in their pursuit of the fleeing suspects, and therefore (hopefully) allowing the suspects to slow down too.
When asked what it would have taken for them [suspects] to slow down, about 75
percent of the suspects said they would have done so only when they felt safe.
The suspects reported, on average, that to feel safe, they had to be free from
seeing emergency lights or hearing sirens for approximately two blocks in town,
between two and 2.2 miles on the highway, and 2.5 miles on a freeway.
(Alpert 123)
Helicopters and fixed wing aircraft can follow the suspect from a distance, lessening the dangers to the public, the police officers, and the suspects, but still keep the pursuit going and directing the ground units on location of the suspect allowing the police to remain close but unobserved in a pursuit. Using this approach can enable the police to get ahead of the fleeing suspects and use a device know as a “retractable spiked barrier strip” which can be deployed on the roadway in front of the suspect. When the suspects approach the retractable spiked barrier strip the spikes can be extended, deflating the suspect’s tires slowly causing the vehicle to slow down and stop, ending the pursuit (Technology). The real problem is to keep from having to make the pursuits at all.
There are some new technologies that may allow the police to avoid some pursuits altogether. One such technology being explored is the Auto Arrestor System that is deployed on the road ahead of the fleeing suspect.
[…] this technology employs a short pulse of electric current to burn out or disrupt critical electronic devices in the ignition systems of modern automobiles. Once a targeted automobile has driven over the activated system and the car’s ignition system is damaged, the affected vehicle can coast to a safe stop, allowing the driver to maintain control, similar to what happens when a car runs out of gas (Technology).

While this system is effective it still requires the police to get ahead of the suspect to use it, creating a dangerous high-speed pursuit.
Also in the offering is a fleeing vehicle tagging system, which allows police to tag a vehicle via a launcher that attaches itself to a vehicle as it begins to flee emitting signal allowing the police to track the vehicle without having to pursue it at high speeds. If the projectile should miss the intended vehicle is not lethal to bystanders (Technology). These technologies need to be put into use as soon as possible to make our streets safer, while we look for more efficient ways to assist the police.
Future technologies need to be studied that will enable the police to take action right at the start of a pursuit, totally eliminating the need for high-speed chases. To do this you would need the cooperation of the car manufactures, and the buying public to have hardware installed in vehicles that will allow the police to deactivate a car’s ignition system when the vehicle starts to flee. But this would require a great deal of planning and cooperation on a national and local level (Moore 26) and may not be possible at all in our country with issues of people’s rights to be examined. To do this it would be hard to protect our freedom, but yet let the police use such technology without the threat of lawsuits involving the infringements of our rights.
In today’s atmosphere there is a catch-22 in the police pursuit policies of our country. “Do the benefits of potential apprehension outweigh the risks of endangering the public and the police [and] that too many restraints placed on the police regarding pursuits can put the public at risk,” (Hill) we must find ways to stop police pursuits before they start. When a pursuit begins “more than 50 percent of all pursuit collisions occurred in the first 2 minutes […] more than 70 percent of all collisions occurred before the 6th minute…” (Pursuit) this data show us there is a real need to find new technologies to aid the police in stopping pursuits early almost before the pursuit even begins.
The dangers of police pursuit are real, “the numbers of fatalities have continued to grow and there is no sign of them leveling off- if anything the latest figures show the rate is accelerating.” (Allen) Something needs to be done. We can’t keep chasing suspects through the streets of our cities. What we need is stronger laws to make fleeing and eluding the police a serious offense, more comprehensive training, and larger investments into research and development of new technologies to aid the police in the apprehension of suspects. Without doing these things our streets will continue to become even more dangerous for the citizens, and the police. Why needlessly make the life of a police officer more hazardous than it already is, when using some of the existing technology can bring some pursuits to a stop, and investing in new technologies can make the streets safer for everyone concerned.

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Works Cited
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Alpert, Geoffrey P. et. al. Police Pursuits-What We Know. United States: Police
Executive Research Forum, 2000
Hill, John. “High-speed Police Pursuit: Danger, Dynamics, and Risk Reduction.”
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. July 2002. Vol.71.i7.14: LEXIS-NEXIS.
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<http://web.lexis-nexis.com/>
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July-Aug 1990. Vol. 24. 26: LEXIS-NEXIS. St. Louis Community College
Libraries, St. Louis MO. 15 Nov. 2002 <http.//web.lexis-nexis.com/>
“Police Departments Defend Pursuit Policies After Rochester Fatal Crash.” Associated
Press State and Local Wire. 24 June, 2002: LEXIS-NEXIS. St. Louis Community
College Libraries, St. Louis, MO. 15 Nov. 2002 <http.//web.lexis-nexis.com/>
Pursuit Management Task Force. Aug. 1998 U.S. Department of Justice 15 Nov. 2002 <http://www.ncjrs.org/pdfiles/fs000225.pdf>
Technology Beat. U.S. Department of Justice. 15 Nov. 2002
<http://www.nlectc.org/pdfiles.tbt-0995.pdf >