Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

[MassNole]

CNN.com Link

Tying this to entertainment, it adds a nice new dimension to the local news knowing cops can't be sued for accidents stemming from high speed chases, well at least stemming from those who cause the chase to begin with.

[Beantown]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

I had never even considered the possibility of filing a suit against a cop for a high speed chase.

[MassNole]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

Well effectively this gives cops more encouragement to chase down speeders than just letting them go because of the liability involved. It will be interesting to see how many states don't embrace this decision.

[ODogg]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

Well effectively this gives cops more encouragement to chase down speeders than just letting them go because of the liability involved. It will be interesting to see how many states don't embrace this decision.

It's a good decision. The person running from the police should bear all of the legal and civil responsibility from anything that may occur.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

It's a good decision. The person running from the police should bear all of the legal and civil responsibility from anything that may occur.

Totally agree. Scum should be the one paying, not the guys trying to bring him in.

[McLite]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

Our pusuit policy has been tamed down in the past few years as it is. Things such as property crimes and basic traffic misdemeanors mean the pursuit is often terminated right away. It is really worth a minivan of a mom and kids getting destroyed by some ******* who is running because he has no license and is scared...or even a stolen car for that matter since the insurance already paid out on it anyway.

On graveyard due to lighter traffic we often have a little more leanway...but if it gets anywhere near the Strip it's over. We have our air unit up though most of the time so once it locks on we just all back off. It's almost impossible to get away from the eye in the sky.

[CMH]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

CNN.com Link

Tying this to entertainment, it adds a nice new dimension to the local news knowing cops can't be sued for accidents stemming from high speed chases, well at least stemming from those who cause the chase to begin with.

Hmm, this reminds me of a recent "The Batman" episode in which the Joker decides to become the Dark Knight (can't beat 'em, join 'em) and rid Gotham of petty crooks. Unfortunately, this was things like jay walking, leaving a turn signal on too long, and yes, beating down a few cops for driving over the speed limit during a chase.

That Joker.

[Knight165]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

Our pusuit policy has been tamed down in the past few years as it is. Things such as property crimes and basic traffic misdemeanors mean the pursuit is often terminated right away. It is really worth a minivan of a mom and kids getting destroyed by some a##hole who is running because he has no license and is scared...or even a stolen car for that matter since the insurance already paid out on it anyway.

On graveyard due to lighter traffic we often have a little more leanway...but if it gets anywhere near the Strip it's over. We have our air unit up though most of the time so once it locks on we just all back off. It's almost impossible to get away from the eye in the sky.

I totally agree.
It was one of(and now still is but in a different way) my biggest fears. Thankfully I wasn't involved in to many high speed pursuits...but the few I were....were on residential streets which made the tension worse. Thinking that someone was going to step out from the curb and get hit by the perp or by my R.C. was a horrifying thought.
Now in the F.D. I wind up driving the rig(not often thankfully) and it's worse...consider that even in a vehicle...someone getting hit by a 30 ton truck is going to be seriously injured if not killed. It's every F.D. chauffeurs(yep that's what we call the driver ) nightmare....speeding to a run and hitting someone.
Anyway...it's a catch-22. I believe it's a good decision...but ultimately the officer has to use his judgement on if he should push the pursuit or not.....and I say catch-22...because what if you make a stop....the guy runs when you get his license....and then he winds up killing someone later after you decided to break off the pursuit(they are RARELY broken off)
This is an interesting decision....thanks for posting this.

M.K.
Knight165

[jmood88]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

I had never even considered the possibility of filing a suit against a cop for a high speed chase.

Me neither, I thought the story was about people who's cars got messed up due to the chases, suing the police for messing up their car.

[MassNole]

Re: Supreme Court Rules Police Cannot Be Sued In High Speed Chases

Attached is a pdf file of the case for anyone who wants to read it.