Criminal justice 1

Vehicular pursuits Affiliation: Why do vehicular pursuits involve a delicate balancing act?
Vehicular pursuit is the chasing of criminal cars by police over highways. This pursuit is usually is high speed one and it may make other law abiding students and even law enforcement officers in the chase suffer because of the safety risks involved. Many people including the fleeing criminals, innocent observers/ by-standers and even the police themselves die or end up with serious injuries as a result of these high speed vehicular pursuits (Hicks, 2007).
Delicate balancing comes in when a decision about the worthiness of the pursuit or the effects it has to the innocent by-standers and other motorists has to be weighed. A delicate balancing act of this high speed pursuit is necessary because a lot is usually at stake. On one hand is the police wanting to prevent fleeing criminals from the authority and from facing their criminal charges and on the other hand is the fact that these high speed chases put many individuals at risk as mentioned earlier (Stevens, 2011).
Police teach people to be law abiding and face up to their crimes but not flee from the law. This therefore necessitates them to engage fleeing criminals in high speed vehicular pursuits. Failure to engage them may lead to other fleeing criminals following suit and fleeing in high speed after committing crimes because they know the police will not pursue them. This will decrease the apprehension rate while at the same time encouraging more criminal activities that end up in the criminals fleeing at high speed from the crime scene and maybe even from the country.
The other balance needed is to ensure that innocent citizens that are caught up in this vehicular pursuit are not in any way harmed. This also includes ensuring safety measures for those police officers involved directly in the high speed pursuit. Some of the measures the police have to put are preventative by educating the public about the potential risks of being caught up in such a pursuit and what they are expected to do immediately they realize that such a pursuit is ongoing. This may however not prove to be easy because most people do not realize about the high-speed chase until it is too late for them to prevent accidents and even shoot-outs from the criminals or the police. Some people also do not seem to think that this involves them or is their problem in any way and hence put themselves and others at risk (Peak, 2012).
The cost of the pursuit is also an issue of debate in the balancing act. The costs involved include the traffic that will snarl up as a result of the chase and how much in times of time and resources is wasted in that traffic. There is also the cost of the damages that may be incurred including damaged cars, injured people and event he dead, not to mention how much resource the police force will incur in this chase and which will all be covered by the taxpayers.
These two balancing act scenarios therefore give the police force a hard time in deciding whether to terminate this whole vehicular pursuit issue or go ahead with it despite the pros and cons in each balance score card. This dilemma however much they try to solve it still remains lurking back at them and especially when criminals start fleeing and innocent citizens are hurt in the process (Kuntz, 2006).
References
Hicks, W. L. (2007). Police Vehicular Pursuits: Constitutionality, Liability and Negligence. Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.
Kuntz, N. J. (2006). Vehicular Pursuits: Policy Analysis and Recommendations for the Missoula Police Department. Massachusetts: University of Montana.
Peak, K. J. (2012). Justice Administration: Police, Courts and Corrections Management. New York: Pearson Education Inc.
Stevens, D. J. (2011). An Introduction to American Policing. New Jersey: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.