Another tragic story where police chasing robbery suspects who stole a motorcycle resulted in the death of three young children. One of the men took off on the stolen motorcycle and one took off in a car. The police took chase and at high speeds sped through the neighborhood. The car jumped the curb and plowed into the crowd killing the children and gravely injuring one of the mothers. I know that if I was that mother I wouldn’t want to go on living if it was my child that died. I can’t imagine life without my child.
I already made a post on this subject discussing the recent injury of a local police officer. Click Here for that story.
Why did the police feel the risk was necessary to chase over a stolen motorcycle? I know if I owned that motorcycle I would of course want it recovered and the suspects caught, but not at the expense of lives!! I have had it with these stories! How can we stop high speed police pursuits? There has to be another way? With today’s technology can’t we use some other forms of tracking and stopping them? If “Q” in the James Bond movies from the ‘60’s can come up with some cool ways of incapacitating the bad guys surely with today’s technology we can come up with something that is not only cost effective, but gets the results everyone wants – the capture of the suspects with a low risk to the public.
Here in our area we have access to a police helicopter and stop sticks that can cause the air in the tires to lower moderately as opposed to a blowout thereby reducing the risk of a fatal wreck. But it’s not enough. With red light cameras and other surveillance devices being more in use around town can’t law enforcement add these to their arsenals? Can unmarked cars and Amber Alert messages be used to enlist the help of the public? How about small cash rewards be offered to the public for help finding the vehicle and suspects by advertising the license plate, make and model and description of the suspects? Having so many eyes out looking for these guys would definitely help in locating them. What about shooting out a small tracking device to attach to the car? I heard there are devices available that can send out a signal that causes the car’s electrical systems to shut down. Some may say the police departments can’t afford this. Can they afford the cost of the lawsuits? Can they afford the stigma of they don’t care about the safety of the public? Can they afford the cost of innocent lives?
These are just a few ideas off of the top of my head. I would like to pursue in voicing my opinion on this, but at this time I’m not sure how. I have been doing some research on statistics this morning, but so far I couldn’t find anything newer than a study done in 1998! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 314 people were killed during pursuits in 1998. Of this total, 2 were police officers and 198 were individuals being chased. The remaining 114 were either occupants of unrelated vehicles or pedestrians. The total was higher in each of the 4 previous years. And there is no mandatory reporting system so who knows what the true numbers are. I wonder if the numbers are lower or higher now.
It is so sad. My heart breaks for those families of the children.
Do you agree we need to stop high speed police chases? What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment