Editorial: Sensible approach on fleeing suspects

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

About a year ago Sheriff Bill Young placed more restrictions on when Metro Police officers can chase suspects fleeing in vehicles, a change intended to protect other motorists from getting hurt during high-pursuit chases. The Sun reported Monday that Young's policy is having an impact, as car chases have dropped 20 percent. From March 15, 2002 to Dec. 31, 2002, there were 193 police chases. From March 15, 2003, which is when the new policy went into effect, through Dec. 31 there have been just 154 chases.

It's more than just simply the number of chases dropping. The number of pursuits in which chases ended in a crash fell, too. There were 43 crashes in the same time frame measured in 2002. That category fell to 33 in 2003. Of the crashes, the number of police officers found to be at fault was 19 in 2002 and just 13 in 2003. One innocent individual has been killed since the policy went into effect, but Young says that the pursuit fell within the new policy guidelines. Those guidelines require that, during a chase, a supervisor must continuously evaluate the circumstances of the chase to make sure that the pursuit isn't too dangerous. Other steps, such as using helicopters to track suspects or laying spike-laden strips across a road to puncture tires, also can be employed.

Metro has a tough balance to strike. It doesn't want to kill innocent individuals at the same time it is trying to arrest a suspect, but if criminals think that police won't chase them, then they will take advantage of the situation. The statistics show that this approach, one that tries to minimize recklessness, is working.