‘Innocent People Can’t Keep Dying’

Retired Police Captain, Tom Gleason of Tallahassee, Florida, helps us answer this question during a New Zealand podcast. Gleason is a member of PursuitSAFETY’s Advisory Board and has a passion for law enforcement training. A trainer for major academies in Florida, Gleason teaches officer safety in such areas as firearms, patrol procedures, and vehicular pursuit policies.
Tom Gleason had this to say:
“…we first started seeing changes in pursuits probably about 20 years ago with certain restrictions as far as speeding and minor offenses…They came about after the public’s outcry about the number of innocent people that were losing their lives in pursuits such as speeding vehicles. So from that, we have seen drastic reductions in the number of injuries, the number of accidents, the number of fatalities resulting from pursuits…”
There were about 500 pursuits last year, up 60% from 2014, 1 in 5 being results in a wreck; totaling 700 car wrecks last year.
Gleason states that when deciding to pursue a vehicle, police need to ask these questions:
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- Do we have a tag number?
- Can we follow up later on with these tag numbers?
- Do we have cameras on that will identify this person?
- Are there other ways we can identify this person later on?
- If so then there is no reason to chase.