EFFECTIVENESS OF NO- HIGH SPEED CHASE policies by law enforcers
The main purpose of this research will be focused on the studying the effectiveness of no-high speed case of law enforcement agencies. The recent Supreme Court decision of Timothy Scott vs. Victor Harris which involved high-speed pursuits by law enforcement officers is one of the cases to be considered to test the effectiveness of no-high speed case policies by law enforcement agencies (Hoffman, 2007). In this particular case, it was the first time that a case was decided by the high court by taking into consideration a video of the incident which was also posted on its website to show to the public the basis of the ruling. It was the first time that a high court posted a video of a high-speed chase incident that resulted to the ruling of the court (Hoffman, 2007). The Supreme Court held that the high-speed pursuits of the law enforcers does not per se mean that such approach is ineffective since it is the manner of the documentation of these incidents which can prove whether a high-speed chase is inefficient or not.
This topic was chosen to determine if the violation of no-high chase policy on the part of the police is considered as an aggression by police, which is just an act of the police in the line of duty (Russo, et al., 2013). The police officers had been reported to stop fleeing suspect by ramming fleeing vehicles. The police here is actually seizing the opportunity to catch the fugitive by ramming the fleeing car of the suspects. In the past officers had to wait until the suspect simply gave up, but nowadays, the officers take control of the situation (Russo, et al., 2013).
In the case of Scott vs. Harris the High Court rendered a decision by using the video of the high speed chase to determine if there was indeed a violation of the Fourth Amendment. At the same time, the Supreme Court was able to present the rationale behind the ruling of the majority members of the court. In this particular case, it was decided that the deputy sheriff from Georgia did not violate the Fourth Amendment even if there was use of excessive force during a high speed chase between the police and the suspect, which led to the crash of the suspect’s car and caused him to become paraplegic (Hoffman, 2007). But experts say that the court's ruling doesn't mean that law enforcement personnel will throw caution to the wind in the pursuit of wrongdoers, though some officers may be tempted to act with less caution in the short term.
In this particular study, the no-high speed chase policies will be assessed with respect to the Fourth Amendment claims by the fleeing suspects and the serious threat to innocent third parties who may be harmed or injured during the police pursuit. It bears to highlight on the importance of understanding the role of the police officers on the road while ensuring the peace and order situation of the country. The police officers are expected to take control over the police vehicles and the roads they take to chase criminals. Thus, in the case of Scott v. Harris, the use of deadly force has been declared unconstitutional. In this particular study, it is important to assess the use of deadly force during high-speed chases. Thus, the limits on deadly force should be clearly established (Russo, et al., 2013).
Research Questions:
Does a dangerous high-speed car chase violate the Fourth Amendment of the fleeing suspect?
Does halting the fleeing suspect during a high speed chase more important than public safety?
Hypothesis: The no-high chase policies are effective in the sense that the law enforcement personnel are expected to act with caution in the pursuit of suspects in the short term or may decide to take chances to keep up with speeding violators.
Dependent and Independent Variable
The dependent variable for this study is the time spent in chasing criminals due to several factors such as conditions of the road, actual time of chase, traffic, road worthiness of the vehicle and the bystanders who may be at risk to catch a fleeing suspect.
For the survey questions on assessing the effectiveness of the no-high chase policies, there will be four-category item that will consider criminality on the road and the occurrence of hot pursuits by law enforcers. Such situation will be defined by analyzing the high chase of fleeing suspects by taking in account the sample’s area of residence? The answers from the participants will range from ‘‘highly probable’’ (4) to ‘‘not likely to happen’’.
The independent variable for this study is the number of road accidents and deaths reported involving high-speed chase of fleeing criminals.
The unit of analysis for this study will be the existing policies requiring no-high speed chase on the part of police officers that are implemented in various states.
Sampling method
A sample of over 20-year-olds will be extracted from the university population who will be surveyed for three times for a period of four months regarding a number of social issues such as street crimes. For the sampling method, the number of high-speed chases will be recorded for each state. The method of interception of high-speed targets is a challenging task for the police officers, especially when the speed of target is higher than that of interceptor (Li, et al., 2014). The guidance laws will also be included in the study to know the manner on how the police intercept their high-speed targets, which may include both head-on and tail-chase engagements (Li, et al., 2014).
It is also important to include in the study the psychological perspective of what it was like to witness an actual police vehicle pursuit (Broome, 2013, p.220). The phenomenological psychological method will be able to give a first-person point of view on how the police officer led the vehicle pursuit by sharing the experience by giving his perceptions, anticipations, thoughts and worries during the incident. The general public is particularly interested to hear actual stories of police car chase because of the thrilling and dramatic outcomes (Broome, 2013, p.220).
The purpose of including the psychological perspective of car chases is to discover and analyze the points of view of both police officers and the public and to learn more of these events from based on the experience of the police officer on the driver’s seat of the police car and the events that the bystanders witness during the actual car chase. There is an expected psychological effect on the dangerous event that they experienced (Broome, 2013, p.220).
Statistical Techniques in the Analysis
The main goal of this study was to analyze longitudinally individual and ecological factors that can affect the effectiveness of no high chase policies by focusing especially on the effect exerted by police officers on the variation of fleeing suspects over a period of time (Russo, et al., 2013).
For this study, the researcher the high-speed rate which is considered as “shockingly fast” that may occur in narrow roads or that which can force the cars that are located to the shoulder to engage in hazardous maneuvers, such as in the car chase of police involving the doctrine of hot pursuit. As a result, the Hollywood-style car chase that involves that law enforcers can be considered as the most frightening experience for the innocent bystanders who may great risk of serious injury (Kessler, 2008).
For the analysis, the data that will be gathered will include the official rate involving high-speed chases for a period of five (5) years, the ratio between the entire amount of crimes reported to the police force and the number of hot pursuit cases and the number of suspects who flee from law enforcers.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Research Design
The research has strong points namely the longitudinal, multilevel approach and the quality of the sample we used. However, it also had some limitations that are considered as quasi-inevitable consequences by performing a secondary analysis (Russo, et al., 2013). Due to the limited valuable dataset that was difficult to obtain the absolute crime risk perception. The longitudinal data should be tested to know the longitudinal effects of no high speed chase policies to correlate the data with the present criminality rate. Conducting new research that aims to discover the efficiency of the no high speed chase policies will be germane to the study. The other developments of this research should be aimed to investigate the mediators of the risk of fleeing suspects using motorized after police arrest or confrontation (Russo, et al. 2013, p. 298). The relationship between reduction of crime rate and violation of the Fourth Amendment during the high-speed chase will be discussed in detail.
It is also interesting to extend the approach or techniques to study the changes in the compared risk of high speed chases based on the comparison with the current criminality that occur on the streets (Prosise & Johnson, 2004). There should be new research aimed at extending such approach to other crime incidents since it may also be fruitful. Since the research focuses mainly on the effectiveness of no high speed chase policies only. However, the literature shows that there are other independent variables that can be used such as other psychological consequences, including fear of crime or the feeling of anxiety about personal safety of innocent bystanders (Broome, 2013, p.221).
It is important to understand the role of the police officers on the road, who have the control over the police vehicles and the roads they take to chase criminals. Thus, in the case of Scott v. Harris, the use of deadly force has been declared unconstitutional. In this particular study, it is important to assess the use of deadly force during high-speed chases. Thus, the limits on deadly force should be clearly established (Russo, et al., 2013, p. 298).
References:
Broome, R. E. (2013). The Lived-Experience of Leading a Successful Police Vehicle Pursuit: A Descriptive Phenomenological Psychological Inquiry. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 44(2), 220-243. doi:10.1163/15691624-12341256
Hofmann, M. A. (2007). Supreme court ruling won't change high-speed chase policies.
Business Insurance, 41(24), 24. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/233510482?accountid=1626
Kessler, D. (2008). Justices in the Jury Box: Video Evidence and Summary Judgment in
Scott v. Harris, 127 S. Ct. 1769 (2007). Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy,
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Li, Yuan, Yan, Liang, Zhao, Ji-guang, Liu, Fan, & Wang, Tao. (2014). Combined
proportional navigation law for interception of high-speed targets. Defence
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Prosise, T. O., & Johnson, A. (2004). Law enforcement and crime on cops and world's
wildest police videos: Anecdotal form and the justification of racial profiling.
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Russo, S., Roccato, M., & Vieno, A. (2013). Criminal victimization and crime risk
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Scott v. Harris 550 U.S. 372 (2007)
