Hype of the Chase

[Amused]

It would seem as though the hype of our nation's televised vehicle chases has glamourized the idea of not only chasing, but more importantly and disturbingly, the fleeing of hardened and sometimes novice criminals. These chases happen all the time and rarely end with positive results. More often than not, somebody gets hurt or killed and it is often the un-suspecting citizen who ends up the victim. Don't believe the hype. It is not all what you think it is unless you are a cop and have been behind the wheel during a chase. Tunnel vision, audible sensory deprivation and a whole lot of other physiological effects take place, all the while we are to maintain continuous communications with dispatch, our fellow officers and keep the damn car on the road...lot's to think about...Next time, change the channel. If the bad guy thinks that nobody is watching then perhaps he will think twice about fleeing.

Well said my friend. Spoken like somebody who has some experience. Nothing is more dangerous in our business then when we are in our vehicles, and it becomes many times more dangerous when we are chasing. Keep both hands on the wheel and remember that there are people at home who are waiting for our return.

Be Safe.

[Sgt. Bones]

Let us not forget that the Departments that have helicopters to use during pursuits. Some Departments have records of over 15 years of pursuits never having a serious accident when their helicopter is involved. So what does San Francisco do? They sold them. Some of the helicopters have been picked up by other departments and are now in service.

Every agency that has helicopters has had bent metal and / or loss of life. Ours included but they learn from their mistakes. Our leaders sell them off. Now that's leadership!!!!

I'm not sure where you get the idea that "more often then not" people get hurt or killed? That is not true. The vast majority of pursuits do NOT end in any injuries or accidents. I speak from experience. Less then 5% of my pursuits, or pursuits I have been involved in resulted in an accident. But plenty resulted in great blue cards (felonies). The problem is, we never used to fill out the pursuit log unless there was an accident. That skewed the numbersa and I am sure alot of agencies still do that. I do agree that one of the biggest mistakes the department made was to sell the helicopters. More criminals will run when they know you can't chase them!

When our department sold our helicopters, my jaws dropped to the floor. Our admin has their head so far up... that they couldn't see the long term benefits to hanging onto the helo's until we could justify their expense. Now we will never see a glimpse of one until after the next big disaster. Mark my words, when the "big one" hits and we are without a helicopter, we will be truly sorry. If there is any type of credible terrorist attack or threat, we will be so sorry that we don't have a helicopter. The admins will point the finger all over the god damn place hoping to put blame elsewhere and the politicians will run on a new platform calling for better emergency response to our "homeland security"...what a scam! That is when we will see a new FLEET of helos.

at one time, the police commission was yelling at the police chief to get a helicopter, after the chief was forced to retired, and a new chief came in, still no helicopter, and then two more chiefs came aboard and still no helicopter. you would think that with all that federal money for home land security, they would have money for one. lets see, office of emergency service has money that was either funded or granted by federal govt, and much of it has not been used. :roll:

Sgt. L from Co. E has tried for years to obtain, upkeep and/or acquire air support for our department. We are reminded time and time again that SF is a primary target for a terror attack but even more realistic is an eathquake of mammoth proportions. We will desperately need a helicopter when the big one hits and we won't have one. If the Mayor thinks that we will be able to utilize Oakland's or the CHP's, he has to remember that they will be very busy elsewhere and we will not have full use of anybody's. But, as usual, we will probably scurry to obtain air support AFTER this horrific reminder that we NEED one NOW!

Will we ever learn?