Police Pursuits
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Law Enforcement Executive FORUM Police Pursuits January 2004 Law Enforcement Executive Forum Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in cooperation with Western Illinois University Macomb, IL 61455 Senior Editor Thomas J. Jurkanin, PhD Editor Vladimir A. Sergevnin, PhD Associate Editors Steven Allendorf Sheriff, Jo Daviess County Jennifer Allen, PhD Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration Western Illinois University Barry Anderson, JD Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration Western Illinois University Tony Barringer, EdD Division of Justice Studies Florida Gulf Coast University Lewis Bender, PhD Department of Public Administration and Policy Analysis Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Michael Bolton, PhD Chair, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology Marymount University Dennis Bowman, PhD Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration Western Illinois University Oliver Clark Chief of Police, University of Illinois Police Department Thomas Ellsworth, PhD Chair, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences Illinois State University Larry Hoover, PhD Director, Police Research Center Sam Houston State University William McCamey, PhD Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration Western Illinois University John Millner State Representative of 55th District, Illinois General Assembly Frank Morn Department of Criminal Justice Sciences, Illinois State University Wayne Schmidt Director, Americans for Effective Law Enforcement Editorial Production Curriculum Publications Clearinghouse, Macomb, Illinois Production Assistant Linda Brines Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) The Law Enforcement Executive Forum is published six times per year by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board’s Executive Institute. The journal is sponsored by Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. Subscription: $40 (see last page) No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Disclaimer Reasonable effort has been made to make the articles herein accurate and consistent. Please address questions about individual articles to their respective author(s). Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) Table of Contents Editorial .............................................................................................................. i Thomas J. Jurkanin Police Pursuits The Decision to Chase: Revisiting Police Pursuits and the Appropriateness of Action ........................................................................... 1 Michael D. Lyman Police Pursuit: From Policy to the Courtroom ............................................ 13 George L. Ruotolo Pursuit Management: The Critical Link ...................................................... 19 Kurt Adkinson Larry Conley Police Pursuits ................................................................................................... 25 John L. Bellah Police Pursuits: Weighing the Risks ............................................................. 35 Dave Grossi Control of Police Vehicular Pursuit .............................................................. 39 D. P. Van Blaricom Importance of Core Stability in Police Pursuits, Daily Routine, and Sports Activities ..................................................................................... 43 Terry Roach Rethinking Police Pursuits, Practices, and Civil Liabilities .................... 45 Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh The Last Option ................................................................................................ 61 Anthony Ricci Gerard Johansen Are Standardized Field Sobriety Tests Really Standardized? ................. 67 Rodney J. Merkley Training Training for Higher Education: The Criminal Justice Training Assessment Project ........................................................................ 79 Eric C. Schultz Law Enforcement Cultural Diversity, Racial and Ethnic Sensitivity Training: Solutions and Recommendations ......................... 87 Thomas J. Jurkanin Vladimir A. Sergevnin Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) Electronic Recording Empirical Experiences of Required Electronic Recording of Interviews and Interrogations on Investigators’ Practices and Case Outcomes ............................................................................................... 103 Brian C. Jayne Personnel Development Police Performance Evaluations: Employee Development May Solve Many Problems .......................................................................... 113 John J. Heiderscheidt Command School: The Education Process for Future Law Enforcement Leaders ............................................................................ 121 Thomas Q. Weitzel Responsibility in Policing .............................................................................. 127 Sharon L. Chamberlin Crime The Victims’ View: Domestic Violence and Police Response ................. 135 Michael Cassidy Caroline G. Nicholl Carmen R. Ross Kimberly Lonsway Youth Gangs and Criminal Conduct ............................................................ 153 C. Louise Logue Trends in the Illicit Use and Controls of Amphetamine Type Stimulants: The Case of Hong Kong .......................................................... 157 Karen A. Joe Laidler Russian Organized Crime – An Ethnographic Study ............................... 167 Minwoo Yun Studies The LPAC 1997 Lawyer Suicide Study Update, April 2003 ...................... 181 Adrian Hill Forensic Hypnosis: A Viable Law Enforcement Tool ................................ 185 Paul B. Kincade Materials/publications are available through the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Executive Institute. Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) Editorial Qing Chang, a 25-year-old Chicago resident, began the new year of 2003 with brilliance and promise. She held a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University in China, a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago and a second master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois. She maintained a perfect grade point average throughout her academic career. Qing had just accepted a work assignment with Thoughtworks as a Computer Programmer and was planning to relocate with her husband to London. Qing Chang was pregnant with her first child. On January 2, 2003, at 6:05 PM, Chang was standing on a street corner in downtown Chicago and was struck and killed by a get away car whose occupants were being pursued by police for stealing a wallet. Her small lifeless body was thrown 40 feet. As tragic, unfortunate, and remarkable as this true-life scenario seems, it could be recounted hundreds of times over with equally tragic results surrounding police pursuits and the loss of innocent life. Despite considerable work to develop policy and guidelines to restrict police pursuits, tragic events such as the one cited above continue to occur. We must ask, “Why?” For example, since 1993, the State of Illinois has issued statewide Model Policy and Guidelines on Police Pursuits and has reviewed and updated them annually, and, nevertheless, innocent people continue to die. The collection of articles contained in this issue of the Forum represent current research and thought from practitioners and scholars addressing the troublesome public policy issue of police pursuit. While police administrators throughout the nation take steps to implement policy and operational procedures to restrict police chases, state legislatures throughout the country must concurrently enact laws to increase the penalties and consequences for citizens who would attempt to flee the police, to include such penalties as vehicle forfeiture. The loss of Qing Chang, her child, and the potential of their lives cannot be underestimated and/or justified. While the police should not be held accountable for initiating the event that led to the death of Qing Chang and her child, the police must nevertheless account for their actions in making the decision to pursue. Thomas J. Jurkanin, PhD Executive Director Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) i ii Law Enforcement Executive Forum • 2004 • 4(1) The Decision to Chase: Revisiting Police Pursuits and the Appropriateness of Action Michael D. Lyman, Professor of Criminal Justice, Columbia College of Missouri Introduction No one disputes the dangers of police work, nor does conventional wisdom challenge the simple fact that there are dangerous, irresponsible, and mentally unstable persons operating motor vehicles. As the varied duties of police officers in the 21st century are considered, it is prudent to try to identify general rules that might apply to each of the many dangerous duties of police officers. Many national standards as well as statutes have attempted to do just that, but much is left up to the discretion of each officer in each circumstance. While discretion is important in police work, poor decisions can and are often made by otherwise honest, well- meaning police officers. The traditional dilemma associated with high-speed police pursuit of fleeing suspects, the subject matter of this article, is deciding whether the benefits of potential apprehension outweigh the risks of endangering police officers, the public, and suspects in the chase. On the one hand, too many restrictions placed on police use of pursuit could place the public at risk from dangerous individuals