Vehicular Pursuits essays

Vehicular Pursuits essays It is tempting to believe that a lot has changed since the Rodney King case. In that highly televised case, police in Los Angeles stopped Mr. King after a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. In that case, the chase did not cause the problem; the actions of the officers, taped by a citizen after they got King out of his car, caused the problem. Still, the incident might be regarded as a poster child for the liability that can accrue to police departments, in terms of civil and even criminal liability, expense and community ill will when dramatic enforcement maneuvers, such as a high speed chase, are involved in police work. In the aftermath of the King case, G. Patrick Gallagher, director of the Institute for Liability Management in Leesburg, Va., noted that "police departments must have clear, constitutional, updated and consistently enforced policies that provide guidelines for responding to such high-risk tasks as the use of force and vehicular pursuits" (Howard, 1991). However, some commentators note that "vehicle pursuits serve a vital law enforcement function, with as many as 500,000 occurring each year" (June 1, 1998) The questions, almost fifteen years after the Rodney King event, are these: In general, have police departments in the U.S. responded with clear policies' And what, if anything, has the U.S. Supreme Court said concerning the issues in high-speed pursuits, excessive force and criminal While it may be unfortunate when miscreants are injured or killed by police in the performance of their jobs, it is often tragic when innocent bystanders are the ones in jeopardy. An editorial in the Kentucky Post in November, 2003, noted that approximately 40 percent of police pursuits end in crashes, with half of those causing injuries. Nationwide, the vehicular pursuit death toll is between 300 and 400 people, according to the Post, and about half...