It happened right in our backyard. An unfortunate event transpired last week, when a 24-year-old Phoenix man was killed in a head-on collision. But what makes this story so unique was that he was killed by a man suspected of robbing a local Bank of America. The suspect himself was being actively pursued by local police. Speeds reached up to 100 miles per hour (160 KM/hour) before the suspect crashed into a civilian. The chase ran through several Phoenix metro neighborhoods and due to its high speeds and busy streets put dozens of civilians lives at risk.

To put the incident in a larger context, we will note the USAToday article below which points out that in the 10 years to 2003, over 3,000 people had died in police pursuit-related accidents. In 2001 alone, 365 people died in such pursuits, including 140 that were neither in police vehicles or a vehicle being pursued. In 2001, Los Angeles had 781 chases, 283 collisions, 139 collisions involving injuries and six deaths.

The numbers are shocking, but more shocking is to consider that most chases do not involved violent criminals, and in almost all cases, can be avoided using alternative means of tracking, including current technologies.

The stories of people maimed or killed as a result of police chases are nearly unlimited. From California to New Jersey, city and state administrators are and will need to find better solutions to law enforcement than endangering the public and the police forces through pursuits. Police pursuits must end for the good of everyone involved! Write to your legislative representative and demand that this dangerous practice be ended!

Sources:

http://www.kpho.com/news/14783554/detail.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-05-police-chases_x.htm

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 10:22 am and is filed under Legal, pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. This post was read by 654 people until now. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.