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Facts for Your News Story

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1. Don't Believe It... every time you hear it.
   
   Law enforcement officials state they take into consideration the following:
   
   a. Time of day
   b. Traffic
   c. Location
   d. Weather
   
   If this statement were true, why are there pictures of dead children, the elderly and unsuspecting adults on this web site?
   
   Innocent people have been killed as a result of a chase as they were:
   a. Time of day: Driving to or from work; traveling during rush hour or picking up their children from school.
   b. Traffic: Driving on a busy boulevard or near shopping centers when the stores were open for business.
   c. Location: Walking to a park, walking home from school, standing outside their school, driving through a residential neighborhood.
   d. Weather: Innocent people have been killed in all kinds of weather.
   
   
2. Regardless of the terminology—catching up, following, & pursuing, all have had the same deadly consequences. Most of us do not immediately have the facts about a police chase, so every time an innocent victim of pursuit is killed, law enforcement officials can say to the media, and through them to us, these statements:
   
   

   • "The pursuit just got started or the chase just ended."
     "We were not chasing; we were 'following' or trying to 'catch up' to the suspect."
     "The pursuit was not high-speed."
   • "We were just about to call off the chase."
   • "It was not a pursuit."

   
   All of these statements are used to try and negate or justify deaths of innocent, law-abiding people.
   
   Family members of victims know the pursuit was long enough and at a speed high enough to kill and permanently injure their innocent loved ones.
   
   
3. The term "Car Accident" is not accurate. You would not report that it was an "accident" if your innocent loved one was killed in a police chase.
   
   The U.S. Department of Transportation recognizes that police chases are not accidents and uses the term "crash." It is easier to summarily dismiss deaths when the cause is called a "car accident."
   
   Innocent people killed and injured in police chases are crime victims. Crimes committed with cars are extremely common, and innocent victims and their families are often victimized again when the media, the public, and the courts call these crimes "car accidents."
   
   
4. Please do not refer to the fleeing driver as a victim. Fleeing drivers are not victims; they made a choice to flee.
   
   

   
   
5. Get the Police Report and Pursuit Policy
   
   It is important that you compare all police reports and documentation on these chases against the agency's pursuit policy, question eye witnesses, and interview experts on police pursuits. Search for evidence: Find the vehicles and check your facts.
   
   Also, when a law enforcement official states: We take into consideration, time of day, location, weather, road conditions, the nature of the fleeing suspect's offense, it is important to determine — by the facts of the chase — whether or not the officers DID take these factors into consideration.
   
   I have read story after story where these factors are stated and the official is not asked to prove that these factors where taken into consideration even when the chases occurred on rainy or snowy streets, during rush hour, in school zones when students are present, residential areas even though the pursuit policy clearly states that officers cannot chase in areas where where the pursuit crosses streets with stop signs and stop lights, etc.
   
   AND, when the officer says, "We have to chase because the suspect might be a murderer," please ask yourself this question: When was the last time you wrote or covered a story and someone complained because the police did NOT chase an UNKNOWN suspect for a minor violation and that UNKNOWN suspect ended up being a murderer?
   
   When officers call off a chase, they initiate other resources to bring about safe apprehensions. (Source: The Police Chief)
   
   Personally, I believe more often than not, officers do know the suspect, especially when the suspect is a parole violator. Officers tell me that if the suspect is a known parole violator, they can usually catch the suspect later at home or at a friend's house when he or she is not behind a "4,000 pound bullet." We know where parolees hang out, officers say.
   
   For information on progressive alternatives to chasing suspects in stolen vehicles, read it here.
   
   
6. Most chases last two minutes. However, the chase begins long before the actual physical chase. The myth of the split-second decision by the Late Jim Phillips.
   
   ...And, here is a link to more myths.

   
   

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