Google Alerts Demonstrate Dangers of Police Chases

If you go on Google and take advantage of a tool known as “Google News Alerts,” Google will send to you via e-mail news accounts in which certain terms are used. I typed in today the terms “police chase killed.” The following are headlines received from newspapers across the country which I received from this Google News Alert:
1) Victim In Police Chase Remembered as Caring Mom;
2) Woman Killed In Crash During Oakland Police Chase;
3) Toddler Killed In Police Chase;
4) One Man Dead After Barrie Police Chase;
5) Woman Hurt In Police Chase Speaks Out;
6) Two Year Old Killed In Police Chase;
If you read these stories which are linked to the newspaper accounts of the alerts, you will find that innocent people were killed during high speed police chases in Alabama, San Francisco and Barrie, Canada, all occurring on August 26, 2009. As indicated, one of them was a 2-year old child, the other an innocent woman and caring mother and the other a male. This is just in one day which is typical of what you see when you use this Google Alert tool. Simply stated, innocent people are being killed each and every day in the United States (and elsewhere) in high speed police pursuits. Query, when the police promise to “protect and serve,” do they not remember that the innocent can be killed during these events? As we have stated before, the police should only chase violent felons during high speed pursuits otherwise they are risking the death of innocent persons in order to apprehend a non-violent individual. The societal costs are too great to continue these dangerous chases when the suspect being chased at high speeds is not dangerous but the pursuit is. High speed pursuits can kill the innocent. They should be reserved for occasions when the risk to the public is justified.