Police pursuits remain as one of most common challenges that police departments encounter in their attempts to capturing criminal or persons that have been involved in illegal activities. However, police pursuits tend to have a wide array of dangers, which much be considered when examining an analyzing the value of these modes of policing. In most cases, the police fail to recognize the fact that their actions tend to jeopardize the safety of members of the public and innocent bystanders, who are involved in the pursuit. It is often noted that some of these pursuits end with the criminals ramming their cars into other vehicles or areas with pedestrians. Thus, this acts as a clear indication of the fact that the persons within these areas face high risks of injuries or deaths as a result of the pursuits.
Some of the developed countries such as the United States among others tend to have an elaborate policing system that allows them to engage in police pursuits as part of the overall process of apprehending a criminal or person suspected of a crime. However, the number of persons that are fatally injured as a result of these pursuits is increasing at a rapid rate, which has become a key source of concern in defining the viability of the police pursuits. Although in most cases the pursuits can result in positive results, law enforcement officers must also take into account the safety risks that they pose for the other people. Pedestrians face the risk of being knocked down by the speeding vehicles considering that the criminals do not think traffic laws during the pursuit.
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When engaging in pursuits, police push the criminals or persons suspected of crimes towards breaking a set of traffic laws meaning that other road users find themselves in a position of risk. An example can be seen when a car involved in a chase intends to cross an intersection at high speed. The most likely outcome is that the car will ram into others that are using the intersection or pedestrians that are crossing the road. For the police officers, the need to catch these individuals creates a situation where they fail to recognize the harm that they are bringing to other users of these roads. Additionally, the failure to recognize the importance of having to establish a well-structured approach on how to effectively deal with the situation without having to engage in long car chases that pose a risk to other road users.
Another notable danger of police pursuits is that it pushes the criminals, some of who are armed with deadly weapons to occupied neighborhoods, which increases the risk of hostage situations in a bid to try to escape. When engaging in a police pursuit, the criminals tend to have very slim chances of actually fleeing from the police, which forces them to adopt tactics that would ensure that they can evade. One of these tactics involves having to drive into a neighborhood and taking innocent persons as hostages, which will create the need for negotiation. The ultimate result of this is that it exposes people within different neighborhoods to a high risk of violence resulting from the need for the criminals to escape from the police without having to go to prison for their crimes.
