Police Vehicular Pursuits

Defines and analyzes the policy and liability issues raised when police conduct high-speed pursuits. Describes and compares the pursuit policies of four law enforcement agencies in New York, Florida and Arizona.

The field of police vehicular pursuits is replete with complex, often conflicting, legal issues. The consequences of negligence can have far- reaching implications for law enforcement agencies as well as individuals. While this book is not an indepth legal analysis of pursuit ramifications, it provides discriminating readers with the most up-to-date guide to understanding the many legal intricacies involved with police pursuits. The text provides comprehensive examination of legal aspects underlying police department pursuits and policy considerations; exploration of liability and negligence.

Using the analogy between improper use of firearms and improper pursuit driving, Alpert and Dunham analyze the police car as a potentially dangerous weapon. The book is based upon information gathered over several years in Dade County (Miami), Florida. The data, which includes details of deaths, injuries, and property damage as well as arrests and apprehensions of felony suspects, are presented not to scare the reader, but to assist the public, members of the law enforcement community, and politicians to understand more clearly the role of pursuit in policing and crime control.

Police pursuits, often receiving a lot of media attention, have become a topic of concern and priority for both law enforcement and the communities they serve. They often come with high risks for the well-being of community members and for both the police officers involved in the chase as well as for the fleeing suspects. In this brief, we summarize what is known about police pursuits, from both legal decisions and criminological research. We then discuss the impact of this research on police pursuit policy, court decisions, and media reports. We offer suggestions about the need for more development and use of research, and the challenges for research to be integrated into police policies, training, supervision and accountability systems.

Who better to write a book on performance driving than Bob Bondurant? Bob knows fast driving - and he knows how to teach it! Here Bob draws from his highly-regarded law enforcement course on police pursuit and counterterrorist interception driving to fill you in on the pursuit techniques used by today's police officers. Corporal Edwin Sanow illustrates several of Bondurant's techniques with firsthand accounts of actual police pursuit situations.

Law Enforcement, Policing, & Security