police chase

**Calo** · 17th March 2007, 13:18

Saw a particular nasty incident on COPS the other night. Cops stopped some guy on a cruiser (I think it was a Harley) and he pulled over at first but then decided to do a runner. He flew through an intersection (red light) and clipped an SUV pulling out of a 7-11 on the other side. When the cops checked him, he had no pulse but the paramedics managed to revive him shortly afterwards. He was wearing one of those useless German-style helmets which ended up almost split in two. A rather sobering reminder of the risks involved in doing a runner, I thought.

Oh, and the reason he ran was because he had a couple of outstanding minor traffic fines.

**scumdog** · 17th March 2007, 13:32

Oh, chase down here last night, CBR1000 doing 146kmh, slowed down a bit then off into the distance but cop got the number on the plate first and gave chase too

.
Cop that was chasing the bike decided to pull out of the chase due to traffic etc and bike vanished into the distance....

Owner of the bike was contacted, seems bike could have been stolen.

Never mind, nobody hurt, thief got away with a new toy and everybody is happy.

**Highlander** · 17th March 2007, 14:01

Originally Posted by Jantar

It was on TV3 news with photos of the bike and the cop car.

I concur. Saw the tail end of the item on the news, can't find any other reference to it though (from searching the interweb).

**terbang** · 17th March 2007, 17:19

Originally Posted by Patrick

So what if it is a drop kick driving like an idiot causing mayhem already?

Then they need to be stopped using reasonable force that isn't going to take out anybody else. The yanks may use the term 'collateral damage' but I'd like to think that we, NZers, value others safety more than that. As I have said all along, don't make things worse when you start chasing people. I'm not telling cops how to make the call, just pointing our that there have been fuckups in the past where innocents get caught up in it.
I sort of understand the cops dilemma as I too have been in law enforcement in the past where I hunted bad guys at sea (including pirates and drug runners) using an aerpolane. I fully understand the 'chase' from the chasers side of things and would spend weeks finding these guys. The greatest challenge to my discipline, especially when the 50 cals joined the fray, was the safety of my aircraft and crew and the naval personnel involved with the bust and there were times when we had to just give it away. Frustrating watching some dangerous shit head sail over the horizon with a few mill of heroin on board, but a reality that we had to deal with. Safety first..!

Originally Posted by emaN

INMHO, this thread highlights the "us" and "them" rather nicely... (no, the po-Lice aren't the "thems", they're the "others").

The "us" are those who've been making Brrm Brrm noises from infancy and have biking in their blood...
I'm picking the "thems" are more likely recent converts to biking, who do it to be seen all leathered up on nice shiny bikes.

The two seem to often have conflicting views. One of them often ends up spouting pc poo.
IMHO

Not true, it's merely a discussion or a debate. So why don't you join in, rather than trying to categorise and redicule those that are having some input. Even though you may not agree with them. But then I'm picking you must be such an old biker convert that you are way above kicking around in the dust over an issue like this. You might get yer shiny leathers dirtied though.

Originally Posted by scumdog

Owner of the bike was contacted, seems bike could have been stolen.
Never mind, nobody hurt, thief got away with a new toy and everybody is happy.

A well handled chase then that the insurance company loses out on too. Sure it would be nice to catch a bike thief but you win some and you lose some and in this case it clearly remained sensible and things didn't get any worse.
Remember the chase still didn't stop the bike from being stolen in the first place, that had allready happened, it only had the possibility of retrieving it and stopping it hapening again. But because of some sensible policing, it was not to be.
Its an impossible arguement as people will speed, steal vehicles and there are times when the police have to use some sort of reasonable force to do their job. We pay them handsomely for the risk that their jobs inevitably can bring upon them. But lets not become a society that can make movies and reality TV out of police chases getting out of control.
I'll once again stand by my arguement, Im not saying 'don't chase' rather, keep it sensible, have the discipline to know when to say when, for the safety of other road users.

**emaN** · 17th March 2007, 21:42

I'm surprised by your tone, however...