StephenSa

Clearly the woman should be charged with the victims death as it was her actions that caused his demise and in fact her vehicle that crashed into the victim. Had she been driving recklessly without being chased she would be charged with reckless homicide so of course she should rot in jail regardless of police involvement. The fact she had such clear disregard for the law proven by her criminal activities and running from the authorities only makes it more imperative to remove this woman from polite society. As for police chases and compability for me there is no clear answer. The police must be able to use all their abilities and tools at their disposal to apprehend criminals. The police didn't know that the suspect they pursued was "only" guilty of non violent crime, for all they knew it might be the FBI's most wanted they had in their sights. It was their duty to pursue and apprehend to the best of their ability. Of course as I said an officer must use ALL the tools in their arsenal and the best tool is their mind. I would say it is up to the individual officer to a great extent to determine the safety of continuing a pursuit that is growing more reckless. The article stated that the victim was struck in a relatively rural area and traffic was light so the officer probably made the best judgement call he could and unfortunately things went awry. Had they been in a crowded urban setting he might have dropped the pursuit. Police officers should be VERY well trained in this area and it is an issue that should be addressed regularly with officers so they are very aware of the dangers of getting caught up too intensely in a pursuit. However if we set a standard where authorities call off pursuit too easily/frequently then more people will run thinking they can get away. I believe it is near impossible to set a national standard for car chase scenarios. The best society can do is train our police officers well and treat each situation individually. Different factors will arise with each situation and it is up to those in the thick of things to make good choices. In the incident that started this thread I can't fault the police. It seems a reasonable call was made that ended in tragedy.