A police chase - would you

[obi_waynne]

If you had a really powerful car and the police came up behind you would you do a runner?

What provokes people to try and outrun the police causing these dangerous police chases?

 

[stamford]

I can never understand the mind of such folk, what with the eye in the sky and thermal imaging they are always caught. Stop and give up, saves killing someone and ending up behinds bars for a long time and the loss of your licence.

Those that think they can outrun them play too many games, it's hardly 'Driver' out there!

 

[T9 man]

^^ Yes indeed and in the immortal words of Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers "We've got to get of this road. They've called ahead by now and you can't outrun a Motorola"

 

[herb]

I've seen it a few time on these police chase programs where the driver is doing stupid things in built up areas and the police have backed out of the pursuit. I don't know if is for the benefit of the cameras or this is protocol? But these drivers get away with it!

At the end of the day you are only going to run from the police if you have or are doing something wrong. You won't get the average Joe doing it!

 

[T9 man]

Agree with you herb, but I wonder, hypothetically you understand! If you found out that you had an illness and only had a few days to live, would you challenge the police in a car chase for that one last thrill?

 

[old-git]

Many years ago, when I was immortal and drove like Graham Hill, I was hooning about in the Elan around 1am. Police car pulled out from a side road behind me with lights flashing and gave chase.

Split second decision, run or stop? Decided to leg it. Police car was a Rover and I knew I could out accelerate it so just went for it. Fortunately I knew the area so as soon as I was out of sight two quick right turns had me doubling back but out of sight.

Do I stop or keep going? Decided to just keep going and got home without being caught. Phew. Exciting, but not something I wanted to repeat so I quickly learnt to be more observant. Can't say that I slowed down, though.

This is not an endorsement of running from the cops. I was lucky that night and never did it again. Found that stopping as soon as a police car started to follow me worked far better. Not so much as a warning to this day.

 

[Yugguy]

They do it for the adrenaline and the knowledge that even if caught all they will get is a slap on the wrist.

 

[T9 man]

They do it for the adrenaline and the knowledge that even if caught all they will get is a slap on the wrist.

Yes I think your right buddy. I remember watching on You Tube somewhere, a chap in Dubai being filmed by someone in his hypercar on a long stretch of road deliberately blowing past a police car like it was stationary. It was moving that fast the police car did not even bother to attempt a chase.

 

[HDi fun]

I've seen the police do ridiculous things on PCA too.

Like pursuing a basic Clio when they were in a Subaru WRX. Clio approaching a left hand corner and indicating as if to turn left.

Commentator tells us that pursuing officer is maintaining close proximity with the target car in case the left indicator is a false one and the car driver then chooses to go straight on.

As it happens, Renault turns left (and nearly over), as does the Subaru closely behind it, it certainly slides right across the road.

Now, how bad would it have been if the target car had gone straight on? The pursuit car could have stayed dozens and dozens of yards back!!!

How hard is it for a 350bhp Subaru to catch up with a 80bhp Clio? I reckon he'd have closed the gap in about three seconds and put himself and other road users at far far less risk.

What a moronic pursuit video.

 

[obi_waynne]

I think a lot of things are glammed up for TV. There is also the benefit of hindsight, we can analyse and criticise a video in the comfort of our home when people were making split second decisions, I know there are many decisions I made in life which I would have done differently had I thought more carefully about it.

So Yes the police do sometimes make silly decisions and mistakes but they IMO are doing a good job with diminishing resources. The priority in any pursuit has to be to preserve life, the general public first and those involved in the chase second!

 

[turbonutter69]

The argument there though Waynne would be if the main priority was to preserve life, then a pursuit would never be engaged in.
In this day an age there is no need to chase vehicles on the ground. The safest option would be follow the target car and call the helicopter in. Which they would do in a pursuit situation anyway.

 

[MADRod]

Must admit ive done it. Late one night with my son beside me we were knocking on a bit with another Cosworth . We blast past a Police Volvo his blues go on & is giving chase. The other Cossie accelerated hard so did I & the Volvo was left sucking its bottom lip. Within 30secs there were no blue lights so I guess he decided to head for the nearest Chippie.