One of the most deadly police-involved type of incidents is...

One of the most deadly police-involved type of incidents is pursuing a fleeing suspect in a motor vehicle.

http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/2015/07/30/police-pursuits-fatal-injuries/30187827/

From 1979 to 2013, pursuits led to the deaths of 6,301 fleeing drivers, 5,066 non-violators, and 139 police officers.

The non-violators could have been passengers in the fleeing vehicle or bystanders who were hit in a crash caused by the fleeing vehicle.

California records from 2002 to 2014 indicate that “More than 89% were for vehicle-code violations, including speeding, vehicle theft, reckless driving, and 4,898 instances of a missing license plate or an expired registration.” Hmmm, most people would consider vehicle theft to be a much more serious crime than speeding, so lumping them together may be misleading. However, “Just 5% were an attempt to nab someone suspected of a violent crime, usually assault or robbery; 168 [0.3% of 63,500] sought a known murder suspect”.

Regarding reasons of fleeing, “A Justice Department-funded 1998 study found after interviewing fleeing drivers that 32% drove off because they were in a stolen car, 27% because they had a suspended driver’s license, 27% wanted to avoid arrest and 21% because they were driving drunk.”

The article advocates police use of a device that shoots a sticky GPS device to the fleeing vehicle. If successful, the police can stop the obvious pursuit but still keep track of where the vehicle is going and easily find it and make the arrest after the vehicle stops. But that does require getting close enough to tag the fleeing vehicle, meaning a pursuit would be needed until the fleeing vehicle is tagged.

So… Batmobiles for cops? I’m all for that.

Deaths resulting from police pursuits of fleeing vehicles do appear to be similar in number to deaths resulting from police shooting someone with firearms. But it appears that a much higher proportion of deaths from pursuits is of people who are not actually of interest to the police.

Regarding reasons of fleeing, “A Justice Department-funded 1998 study found after interviewing fleeing drivers that 32% drove off because they were in a stolen car, 27% because they had a suspended driver’s license, 27% wanted to avoid arrest and 21% because they were driving drunk.”

–> So some drove off for multiple reasons… (since the sum is greater than 100%…)

In the northeast, after a number of uninvolved people were killed by cars fleeing police or by police cars, some states, including MA, put in strict rules about when you could chase and that has worked.

The entire concept of a chase is absurd: you can’t run out of the jurisdiction like in the movies about bank robbers of the 1930’s where they cross the state line and the police cars stop. The police generally have the make/model of your car and your license plate number and they have a radio net to alert everyone in the area.

30% off at the local Dunkin Donuts, and the cops racing to get there in time…

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/4-kids-injured-by-suspect-fleeing-from-dpd-on-citys-east-side/33760232

We had this awful incident just a few weeks ago in Detroit. 2 kids killed on the scene and I think one of the others who was critically injured died a few days later.