This is such a difficult one.

Each situation and rider will have its own nuances and you won't know what those are until you stop the rider or let them kill themselves. The rules have to be written to the lowest common denominator. My point being you can't write policy that allows for the risk of killing 20 stupid kids, or ploughing a stolen bike into a mothers meeting outside a school, to catch one helmetless bank robber. If we knew the only two outcomes to chasing someone on a bike without a helmet were going to be either catch or kill a proper baddie then I could probably come most of the way to your viewpoint Alzo. The problem is, we can't gaurentee those outcomes .... and no matter how frustrating it is that the bad-guys and the dickheads get away with their behaviour I don't think we can ignore the other side of the story to get what we want when it comes to the real bad-guys. 

The only way to legislate for that is how they have, to allow the police to chase but to explain afterwards that they have to be able to justify their actions.

The answer for me is allow the police the proper freedom and understanding to do their jobs properly without fear of reprisals for making a mistake. Reckless actions and poor behaviour should be punished the same as anyone else in a role of responsibility.... but reasonable errors of judgement should go in the same pile as the reasonable choices and judgements that went the right way.

The problem with that is that we live in a litigious and self righteous world where everyone is to be hung drawn and quartered the second something goes wrong. Inevitable, as T.C. shows with his posts, the answer is to be risk averse when it comes to your decisions. Who is going to authorise their best pursuit copper to risk his whole career and his life to chase a twat on a ped.... I wouldn't!

Quote from: Gilby104 on January 16, 2017, 01:15:28 PM


The only way to legislate for that is how they have, to allow the police to chase but to explain afterwards that they have to be able to justify their actions.

The answer for me is allow the police the proper freedom and understanding to do their jobs properly without fear of reprisals for making a mistake. Reckless actions and poor behaviour should be punished the same as anyone else in a role of responsibility.... but reasonable errors of judgement should go in the same pile as the reasonable choices and judgements that went the right way.

By and large we already have that system in place, and in the majority of sitautions the end result is what we all want, namely scrote or scrotes in custody without anyone being hurt or worse.

The flip side is that even the most minor incident is put under the magnifying glass.

People find it hard to believe that as Motorcyclists, we used to "ram" vehicles in a pursuit 

On certain roads, as a vehicle went through a left hand bend, ride up to the rear of the vehicle, put your boot out against the bumper and wind open the throttle    This would cause oversteer and usualy result in bandit vehicle going off the road.

It was always funny when it got to court and said scrote would whinge about having been rammed by the Copper on the motorbike.  Magistrates were known to give some very strange looks (bearing in mind that it did not happen often and you did not usually get the same magistrates twice).

You could not do that now.

Before the days of T pac and on board cameras we used to ram from the rear but on the radion we would be transmitting that we were being rammed.  Again it would get to court and we would be accused of ramming but then the question would be asked how on earth in the heat of the moment is the radio message stating that it was the police car being rammed not doing the ramming? 

It was called the ways and means act.  You could not do it now, and I suppose I come from a different era or generation, but the principle of my opening post remains constant.

QuoteOn certain roads, as a vehicle went through a left hand bend, ride up to the rear of the vehicle, put your boot out against the bumper and wind open the throttle    This would cause oversteer and usualy result in bandit vehicle going off the road.

Hell's teeth! Braver men than I am!

Also, I guess this might have worked with the smaller, lighter cars with crappier tyres, no ASC, etc, back then, but I wouldn't fancy trying it on an X5!!

Quote from: tucola on January 16, 2017, 02:48:22 PM


Also, I guess this might have worked with the smaller, lighter cars with crappier tyres, no ASC, etc, back then, but I wouldn't fancy trying it on an X5!!

Actually works on any size vehicle if you connect right but not something you did everyday or could go out and practice.  It was one of those skills (for want of a better word) that got passed on but once departments started being disbanded these skills or tricks of the trade became lost in time    It is all about the physics and momentum 

Cool as...

I witnessed three non helmet wearing scooter riders riding up a very busy George street in Edinburgh. Running red lights and swerving all over the place. They slowed and were looking at the bikes parked up deciding which one to go for.

Their riding will eventually end up in some poor person being run down.