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> if you run and they can't chase, how do you expect arrests to happen? Lots of police departments have adopted a stance that they won't chase you except for c

> if you run and they can't chase, how do you expect arrests to happen? Lots of police departments have adopted a stance that they won't chase you except for certain circumstances (such as if you're presenting an immediate threat to the public). Instead, they'll track the running suspect, position cars in the path of the vehicle and do ambushes involving spike strips, pit maneuvers, etc. Or, depending on the situation, they may do nothing in the moment and arrest the driver later at their home.

vundercind 2y ago
Even spike traps and “pit maneuvers” (AKA forcing another car to lose control at speed—take away the cool term and they’re just causing someone to lose control of a ton or three of steel on public streets, which is obviously nuts even if the only people at risk are in the fleeing car, unless the situation is already extreme) are crazy-dangerous and aren’t good to employ outside exceptional circumstances. These tactics (outside extraordinary cases) are a solution to a problem the cops created themselves by chasing the fleeing suspect, and turning it into a life-and-death matter. It’s one of those cases where a knee-jerk and kinda authoritarian sense of justice (“they’re running, you can’t run from the cops, they have to go after them!”) is at sharply at odds with public benefit.