Halt to police pursuits in L.A.

[dd74]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/07/lapd.gps.ap/index.html

Having been almost mown down in a crosswalk by a police pursuit (no lights/sirens on unmarked cruisers ), it's about time this rule was implemented.

Of course, our "chief" had to add his scholarly two-cents' worth:
Bratton, who often calls the city the car chase capital of the world, was asked why there are so many pursuits in Los Angeles: "There are a lot of nuts here," he said.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by dd74
Of course, our "chief" had to add his scholarly two-cents' worth:
Bratton, who often calls the city the car chase capital of the world, was asked why there are so many pursuits in Los Angeles: "There are a lot of nuts here," he said.

He should of said:
Because nobody walks in LA!

[jorian]

Faux News has to be bummed, what will they do for content?

[techweenie]

Man! they just cancelled the best show on Tee Vee!

[bryanthompson]

I'll be impressed when their gps tracker dart can remotely launch a missile to end the bad guy's day. now that would be good television.

[scottmandue]

Gosh... I guess we will have to get by with out of state car chases. Anyone catch the recent one in Texas? Silly Texans had the patrol cars back off and followed the runaway with some new fangled thing called a helicopter.

[jkarolyi]

>I'll be impressed when their gps tracker dart can remotely launch a missile to end the bad guy's day. now that would be good television.

LOL...seriously, I've been waiting a long time for them to come up with some kind of solution to the ridiculous car chases we have here. I always envisioned a dart that could shoot out the tires, but this GPS dart idea is genius.

>"There are a lot of nuts here," he said.

Come on dd74, are you denying this fact?

[dd74]

Originally posted by jkarolyi

>"There are a lot of nuts here," he said.

Come on dd74, are you denying this fact?

Ah, hell no, Jay! You and I both know that's the case. But if "nuts" was a race, there'd be the same uproar as when Darryl Gates used the term "an El Salvadoran drunk who doesn’t belong here.” The LA Times would be all over his ass, which is the last thing we need.

[red-beard]

OK, so if you want to get away from a crime, you just need to drive fast. OK, that makes sense.

WTF?!?

[FrayAdjacent911]

Though I agree a chase is very risky...


They let the badguys out of prison to offend again... now they're just going to let them run away!

It's a good time to be a thug in LA!

[DavidI]

Police chases are very dangerous for everyone involved. We try to minimize the risk for the officer, public, and even the bad guy. When we rely excusively on technology, we will allow some bad guys to get away. Most police agencies only pursue felonies, contrary to public belief. With that said, some dangerous people are going to get away who would have been caught otherwise.

Using the GPS system allows officers to track a car. We cannot track the bad guy, not to mention when there are multiple bad guys. To try to catch them after they ditch the car, we would have to drive very very fast to make up for ground lost.

It is a balance that weighs heavily on all of us. With power comes great responsibility. The ones who may suffer because bad guys get away are the citizens that become the bad guys next and subsequent victims.

Most of us cops live far away from the cities where we patrol. This is practical because we would not want to run into people we have arrested while we are eating at McDonalds with our families. The people who are going to suffer are the ones who want the increased restrictions.

Just trying to give another perspective, David

[Rick Lee]

David, I can appreciate the reasons for ending the car chases. But if I walk into a mall and start shooting a pistol into the air, the cops are gonna take me out. How is running from the cops at high speed any different? Both cases are people with zero regard for the law or human life who will only be stopped by force. Why can't cops kill people who run from them? I would have no problem at all with it. I'd much rather that person die before they can kill other innocents with their crazy driving.

[DavidI]

Rick, I agree about the bad guys puting the public in extreme danger by evading police. All of the people who want pursuits to be abandoned would change their mind if the bad guy getting away had just raped, maimed, or killed his wife, sister, or mom. It is a very ugly truth, but we see it everyday in the real world. There has to be some solution to end pursuits which punishes the bad guy to deter them. Most of the time, the bad guy gets one year in jail for evading. The punishment should be increased. We have all seen bad guys driving in circles waving to the helicopter cameras.

David

[jyl]

I suppose miniguns on the police helicopters have been tried?

[DavidI]

The problem with guns on a ghetto bird is that in many cases there are passengers who have nothing to do with the criminal's evading. In many pursuits, we have found children in car seats, girlfriends who did not want to be in the car, and innocent victims of carjacking. How would we determine who the bad guy was before opening fire.

I am a moderate Republican......kind of unusual for a cop, David

[pwd72s]

It'll be easy enough, soon enough. Cops just radio a plate number to Onstar, the car quits running.

[DavidI]

Originally posted by pwd72s
It'll be easy enough, soon enough. Cops just radio a plate number to Onstar, the car quits running.

That would be an outstanding idea. What about the older cars and the techs who figure out how to disarm them? The newer ones could be fitted with a shutoff where the car could not be started if the On Star were disbled.

Someone could make a lot of money with this idea, David

[red-beard]

Originally posted by DavidI
That would be an outstanding idea. What about the older cars and the techs who figure out how to disarm them? The newer ones could be fitted with a shutoff where the car could not be started if the On Star were disbled.

Someone could make a lot of money with this idea, David

So would Micro-chipping the population, but it's not going to happen.

[austin552]

How about giving the police high powered paint guns. There would be lots of pretty colors everywhere. Kinda fits in huh?