Submitted by Cedric Hughes on Tue, 07/03/2007 - 12:13
Recent car chases in both Ontario and British Columbia have renewed national attention on police pursuit policies. In the Ontario case, two teenage girls were killed when a 15-year-old called, Chevon Josephs, fleeing police in a stolen vehicle at high speed, struck the taxi in which they were riding. The thief died too.
In the British Columbia case, Victoria police shot and killed the driver of a stolen SUV after chasing him through residential streets while also firing 12 shots, some of which reportedly hit passing cars and, (of all things) - a bus shelter.
Police car chases pose serious risks of injury to other innocent road users, to the police themselves, and to the driver of and any passengers in the fleeing vehicle. A real life car chase, even if not dramatic enough to register on a cinema thrill-o-meter, can still produce a lot of collateral damage.
Since the year 2000, all Ontario police forces have been governed by a province-wide pursuit policy. An officer undertaking a chase must have:
1. A reasonable belief that the driver has committed or is about to a
commit a criminal offence
2. No alternatives for apprehending the driver; and
3. An immediate need to identify the driver or the vehicle or stop the driver
from harming the public that outweighs the risk to public safety from the
chase.
How the officer gets through step three is not clear. To comply successfully, the police may need a written opinion from a lawyer, and a report from a traffic safety engineer.
Not surprisingly, Ontario policy is credited with, “significantly reducing deaths from pursuits,” but in response to the Josephs case both Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayor David Miller are calling for a further review of police procedures.
In British Columbia, police-pursuit policies are defined in the emergency vehicle driving regulation under the Motor Vehicle Act. This regulation sets out four factors that police officers must consider before engaging in a pursuit:
1. The nature of the suspected offence
2. The risk of harm posed by the chase
3. The road conditions; and
4 The amount of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in or reasonably expected to be in
the chase area.
Each police force in the province has guidelines for operating under this policy. In early June, the Victoria police board amended its guidelines to restrict chases to suspects they believe have committed or are about to commit especially serious offences such as murder and robbery. Victoria police expect the new guidelines will eliminate 90 percent of their pursuits.
This approach is consistent with a growing trend in the US restricting police pursuits for serious violent “felons” only. Police departments in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis and Orlando are among those that have stopped chasing drivers for "minor" violations, saying, putting innocent lives at risk, including those of the officers, is too high a price to pay.
However, no worries about loss of police control. The increasing presence of surveillance cameras will soon more than compensate for the retirement of the high speed chase.
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