Pursuit policy of Yuma police wisely restricted

To pursue or not to pursue, that is the question... at least it is for Yuma police officers.
 
Fortunately, the Yuma Police Department has come up with some good guidelines that adequately deal with criminal activity while at the same time providing a measure of safety for the public.
 
Many of us are familiar with the high-speed police chases that often appear on national TV news shows. They are frequent news fodder from larger cities where televisions stations can afford helicopters.
 
We are also familiar with the sometimes tragic consequences of those chases as fleeing suspects endanger innocent drivers and pedestrians in their zeal to get away. Sometimes there are crashes where the suspects or others are injured or killed.
 
More and more police agencies are seeing these chases as potential no-win situations and are establishing guidelines for pursuits. The Yuma Police Department is one of the police departments that has a restrictive chase policy, one that The Sun reported recently as part of a story on a tragic collision between a fleeing suspect and another vehicle in which a person was killed.
 
The man in the speeding vehicle was not being chased, even though he was one of two persons suspected in a "beer run" theft. A passing motorcycle officer tried to intervene as they left a store, but did not give chase when one left in a vehicle.
 
The officer was in compliance with the department's pursuit policy, which discourages chases.  
 
The YPD's pursuit policy is 14 pages long, but can be boiled down to one basic tenet: Don't engage in a pursuit unless it is a very serious situation. Chases for misdemeanor offenses - like beer theft - or civil traffic violations are specifically prohibited.
 
That means there are few pursuits by Yuma police officers.
 
Chases are allowed for felony offenses when it is seen as necessary and there is a reasonable chance of apprehension or if there is the imminent threat of injury or death to others.
 
The reasoning behind this very restrictive policy is good, and was explained by Yuma Police Department spokesman Clint Norred. "High-speed pursuits pose a danger to police officers involved, violators and the general public, and statistically the majority of offenders who flee police do so for minor violations."
 
It is stupid for suspects to risk harming or killing themselves or others for a minor offense, but they do it nevertheless. A restrictive pursuit policy, however, ensures that police aren't encouraging them in their stupidity.