Over the past 36 years, approximately 5,000 bystanders and passengers have been killed as the result of high-speed police chases, and thousands more have been injured due to police officers pursuing people in hazardous conditions, reported USA Today.
Each year, police officers engage in high-speed pursuits of people, usually for traffic violations or misdemeanours, causing them to flee the scene recklessly. These recent findings spotlight the dangers of engaging in these pursuits for such minor offences.
Some reported high-speed chases that have lead to deaths stemmed from offenders running a red light, shoplifting and keeping their headlights off, reported Mondo News.
A mother of one of these victims expressed her concern over the police's unsafe tactics.
"The police shouldn't have been chasing him [the suspect]," she said. "That was a big crowded street. He wouldn't have hit my son if the police hadn't been chasing him."
Police Maj. Travis Yates, who heads a national academy focused on pursuit-training, acknowledges the dangerous nature of these situations.
"A pursuit is probably the most unique and dangerous job law enforcement can do," he said.
According to government statistics, police pursuits have killed an equal amount of people as justifiable police shootings. On average, a high-speed pursuit kills one person per day, reported The Week.
Despite these alarming numbers, more focus tends to be on the dangers of other police tactics, with pursuits flying under the radar.
