The criminal justice system is comprised of five components. They include the following; law enforcement authorities, courts, prosecutors, defence attorneys and correctional facilities (Dunn 2008).
They work together to make sure public policy set up by the government is achieved. Police pursuits fall under the law enforcement component. The policy of the law enforcement agencies is to protect lives of citizens by practicing safe and reasonable solutions towards potentially dangerous situations.
Whenever a police tries to stop a motorist and the motorist decides to disobey the order of the police officer and evades, the police can initiate a pursuit.
However, to initiate a pursuit the police officer is to follow a strict policy that has been established. The policy ensures that the police officer, the offender and the public lives are not endangered during a pursuit (Dunn 2008). Safety should be of paramount importance. Recent research shows that the general public face the highest risk whenever a pursuit is initiated. In this regard, if a police officer finds that by engaging a pursuit he or she will put the general public at risk, then the law enforcement officer should consider letting the offender escape.
The other policy a law enforcement officer should consider is how severe the offense is. There is no need of initiating a pursuit when a minor offense has been committed. This does not mean the offenders will be let free. A follow up investigation will be carried out and the culprits will be arrested and charged.
It is also a policy that during these situations the police officers should keep a calm head (Dunn 2008). They should avoid getting frustrated and remember to put the safety of the pubic first.
The other policies put in place to ensure public safety is upheld include, channelling the pursuits to narrow unused roads, alarming other police officers and putting up road blocks at strategic locations.
These policies have been put in place to ensure that the safety of all the involved parties is not put at risk. The law enforcers have been limited by these policies on how to handle pursuits. To put an end to this life endangering situation the government has come up with various legislations. If found guilty an offender will be liable to pay huge amounts in the form of fines imposed or serve very long sentences (Dunn 2008). This is aimed at putting an end to this menace.
Reference
Dunn, W. N. (2008). Public policy analysis: an introduction. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall