Thursday, October 4, 2007

St. Petersburg to review policy

According to Fox13 in Tampa, officers of the St. Petersburg PD want their pursuit policy reviewed. Not just when to pursue, but how to end a justified pursuit. Read the entire story HERE.

This comes in result of the death of an innocent bystander last week. I wrote about the incident in a previous blog.

One part of the article caught my eye:

"We don't use (the PIT maneuver) in our department, we don't teach it."


The safety and the effectiveness of the PIT maneuver can be debated. That is not what I am focusing on here. This shows that a safer pursuit policy is much, much more than what is on paper. Departments must be willing to put in the man hours to correctly train their officers so when the case arises where a pursuit is necessary they can bring it to a safe and quick end. Does anyone know the training hours an officer does in regards to the use of his firearm in comparison to police pursuits? It's time to do a bit of research...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your right, it's time to do a bit of research. Everyone knows that thousands of police departments, and police officers dont know as much as a guy who went to two low rate schools for a degree in Political Science. Oh yeah wait, Every officer already has one of those degrees. Do some research is right, research how many "bad guys" go to jail because of police pursuits vs. how many "good guys" get hurt. Then research how many people the "bad guys" who get caught have hurt and then do the math. You may hurt 2000 people a year in pursuits, but you save about 20000 by getting those "bad guys" off the street. Research how many college students kill people in crashes a year...maybe they just shouldnt be allowed to drive. Better yet research many training hours police officers have, like you said, then add in the hours a year they work, then add the drive time up and then ot, plus the school time and realize that they put over 3/4 of an average lifetime towards protecting jerks who will devote their lives to critizing their every move, but will never have the guts to go out on the streets and do what the real "good guys" do.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous:
After reading your post, the only aspect of it that truly made sense was the fact that you posted as anonymous (like a true coward). Kudos for not wanting to associate your name with the garbage that followed.

Perhaps next time you are attempting to insult someone's intelligence, you shouldn't begin, and end your argument with grammatical errors.

What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this blog is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

John T. Fox said...

Is the Anonymous poster implying that all police officers have master's degrees? You might want to check into that...

I would also like to impugn the notion that it is justifiable to injure "2000 people a year in pursuits," to get purported "bad guys off the street." Your assumptions are as broad as they are ignorant.

Had you taken the time to thoughtfully pursue this website, you might be aware that Pursuit Watch does not advocate ending the pursuit of known dangerous felons. Unfortunately, many police departments make no designation between suspects who are fleeing because they committed a violent offense and suspects who are fleeing due to a relatively benign reason, such as driving with a suspended license. You must remember that the Police exist not to simply put away the "bad guys,"
but rather to protect the public. Sometimes the safest thing to do is to call off the pursuit.