The only experience I really get of US Policing is 'World's Wildest Police Videos', not the best source I know!

Anyway, I regularly see chases of suspects involving anything from 10-20 LAPD-style black and whites, and I was wondering if this was the norm?

Is it only like that for bigger forces such as the LAPD?

It just seems like a bit of a waste of resources to me!

Any info greatly appreciated.

I think a lot of it is because the US put a lot more finance into policing than we do , so most US officers are pursuit trained etc , Where as here a pursuit trained driver is a rarety so we have minimal vehicles involved .

True I think. Here we have special Traffic units to deal with pursuits. Other than that, there's only one or two pursuit drivers on a beat section so we can't send so many cars into pursuits.

Interestingly, in the UK during pursuits, if using the T-Pac method, there can be any number of cars upto about 15 involved.

And they get to keep the money they seize from drugs raids etc..., where in the Uk it goes to the government.

US forces always respond in rather large numbers. They always have at least 5+ cars involved in aq pursuit. this is also becuase many of thier units are single crewed and if an armed situation does arise then numbers tend to help

I think that in the USA, particulary the bigger Departments they have allocated cars. So each Patrol Officer has his own allocated car he /she drives every day at work.

The days of "chase 'em till they crash and burn" are over in the U.S.. Most police departments have pursuit policies that limit pursuits. Officers generally can pursue vehicles when the persons in them have commited a felony and may be a danger to the public. If an officer "goes in pursuit" the pursuit is approved or called off by a supervisor. Obviously this is a condensed version of a pursuit policy but tells you the basics.

Welcome to WWP.

Hi dudleydoright and welcome to the site.

Thanks for the post, it seems the US is taking a similar line to pursuits as the UK.

I hope you stick around and enjoy the rest of the forums.

I ditto that Orinoco

Richie

What they said

Al

Police driver training differs greatly in the US to the UK, most US departments have their basic training and then that is it, we are very fortunate in the UK to have such good driver training, another forum I frequent which is US based were astounded when I said I had had over 10 weeks of driver training in my career.

Police driver training differs greatly in the US to the UK, most US departments have their basic training and then that is it, we are very fortunate in the UK to have such good driver training, another forum I frequent which is US based were astounded when I said I had had over 10 weeks of driver training in my career.

Even as a Member of the General Public in the UK, I personally had absolutely no idea you get so much training. I wasn;t even sure if there was any training - never mind different courses etc. I thought the reason why you must have a driving license is because you just use that (no special courses) but I must be wrong

And why should you know any different?
Do you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing we get lots of training then