Keep It Simple Stupid

You know the sick feeling... that burning sensation on the back of your neck as the police officer behind you hits his blue lights to pull you over coupled with the knots in your stomach thinking about the ticket he or she is probably about to write you. Chances of you getting away if you decide to run are slim to none, so do you even risk it?

350 people die each year in high speed police chases and the sad fact is that most of those 350 end up being innocent bystanders who had absolutely nothing to do with the person who decided to run and the cops who saw fit to make a big deal out of nothing. What do the police expect of a suspect who decides to take off? That seeing 8 cars behind him or her will make them smarten up and pull over now? Once the decision is made to run, it's set in stone more times than not for the fleeing suspect. It's time that police forces nationwide start to seek alternative methods to pursuing a suspect who decides to flee.

Most cars have tags. Those tags are linked to a certain address and name (unless the car is stolen.) Why can the cops not just take down the tag of the person who is fleeing, back off, and then go file a report? I know, I know...easier said than done, but I would hope that cops generally have good enough vision to get down a tag number even from a safe distance of a speeding suspect. Then the police can go to this person's house and wait on them. If they don't show up, find out where they work and get them there the next day. In the rare case of a suspect who just murdered someone or robbed a bank, I do believe that the police should have the right to follow the suspect but keep their distance and not attempt to wreck the person. We have this neat invention called a spike strip. It will disable a vehicle's tires in an instant. Use that instead of the famed PIT manuever and, VOILA!, flat-tired suspect now driving on 4 metal wheels. I promise you that sucker isn't going anywhere too fast or too soon.

People are just so complacent now that they'd rather try some massive idea (like a constitutional amendment) when there are smarter and smaller methods to employ that work just as well if not better. Lets save constitutional amendments for something much more important, like immigration or limiting the powers of a President in war time....and lets save the lives of innocent men, women and children by employing different tactics when it comes to high-speed chases.