The recent deadly crash near Toronto — in which four people were killed after police chased a suspect through oncoming traffic on a major highway — highlights the challenges officers face when deciding whether to pursue a suspect.

But it also raises questions about whether the policies covering police chases need to be beefed up, and if officers are sufficiently trained when confronted with these incidents.

… Christian Leuprecht, a professor of political science at Royal Military College of Canada, says he believes there’s too much emphasis on tactical training. There should be more scenario training, in which officers must decide under what circumstances they would want to engage in a pursuit and how they weigh the risks, he says.

“These are, like, classic issues where your heart wants to chase after the guy but your brain should have all sorts of red signals [to], stop right now.”

  • @ILikeBoobies
    3•14 days ago

    Police near me aren’t allowed to chase, would have thought Toronto to be the same given the higher population

    At least Toronto has banned them now

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    1•15 days ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The recent collision was the result of a police chase that began with an alleged liquor store robbery in Bowmanville, Ont.

    “The officer involved has to make a ton of decisions at the time and assess things in a split second,” Jeff McGuire, executive director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, also told The Current.

    “Other than completely outlawing, making chases totally prohibited under any circumstance, I don’t think there needs to be tightening, in my opinion, on, legislation or policy,” McGuire said in a separate interview with CBC News, though he’s also open to looking for any potential gaps.

    But Christian Leuprecht, a professor of political science at Royal Military College of Canada, says he believes there’s too much emphasis on tactical training.

    A study conducted by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP found that 77 people died in police pursuits over a 10-year period ending in 2019.

    “A lot of this has to do with the new thinking in policing today, which is about proportionality,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, said when the report was released.

    The original article contains 939 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @[email protected]
    -18•15 days ago

    Literally all you have to do, is give each police-cruiser 3 specific drones, that can:

    • target the vehicle being chased, & then EMP-kill that vehicle ( an electromagnetic pulse “bomb”, which blows the vehicle’s circuitry: it’d need a huge capacitor, & an inductor. The drone would be destroyed if it were near, so it’d need to be a disposable thing, not the chase-drone, which would need AI

    • track fleeing individuals, using biometrics ( gait, limb-geometry, iris-scan in a swoop, etc ), to get as much identifying information on 'em as possible, & keep identifying where they are, until their tracking is lost. This should have the ability to identify wireless/cellphone/BT signals, so as to identify if somebody is the same person as who entered a building a few minutes ago, and having other drones to cover the other exits, sharing information, would be intelligent/wise

    • get to a crash-site, & show the EMT’s what need is there, so they can be preparing before they get to the site, for that specific set-of-injuries

    etc.

    Once someone’s caught committing a crime, then all pretence of “you have no right to track me” can eat hot lead ( gaslighting needs to die ).

    There is a category difference between full-on big-brother piling onto someone caught committing a crime, vs the evil panopticon/universal-molesting/no-privacy-whatsoever world that some big corporations ( some private, some gov’t ) are pushing.

    Use appropriate leverage, for the context, & prevent exploiters/supremacists from exercising such leverage on entire-populations, for sake of ( what remains of ) civil-rights.

    Downvote this to hell, now, obviously…

    • @Kelsenellenelvial
      1•12 days ago

      I think the biggest one is some departments already have a GPS tracker type thing that’s launchable from a squad car. Then it’s just a matter of deciding if the risk of engaging in the chase is higher or lower than the risk of the suspect escaping. It’s also worth considering that never engaging in a chase makes it simple for people to avoid arrest simply by driving away, so there has to be some expectation in a suspects mind that it might not be worth running.