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Focus: Peace officers, police
supervisors, police managers, Watch Commanders, and agency risk
managers
Length: 8 hours
Police vehicle pursuits are dangerous. Statistically, the longer
the longer the offender is pursued, the more likely that pursuit is
going to end in tragedy. A violator fails to stop when you
attempt to pull him over for expired tags, or for perhaps rolling a
stop sign. He elects to attempt to elude you at high speeds
through a residential or urban area. In the blink of an eye,
there is a uninvolved motorist's vehicle in the roadway.
Suddenly there is a cloud of dust and smoke, car parts are floating in
the air, and someone's life just changed forever...too often their life
just ended. You, the peace officer soon become a civil defendant, and your
agency is, of course, named in the suit. You will be asked to
justify your actions in this pursuit, from beginning to end. If
you cannot articulate why you initiated and continued the pursuit, and
what the need was to apprehend the violator, you may be found liable.
Every police pursuit policy contains a “risk versus benefit” formula
(The risk of the pursuit versus the benefit and need to apprehend the
fleeing violator).
This course emphasizes HOW TO ARTICULATE YOUR DECISIONS following the
pursuit of a violator.
It also discusses how to comply with the requirements of your
police agency pursuit policy to apprehend fleeing suspects in vehicle pursuits
through liability mitigation strategies and safety conscious tactics.
Participants explore past and current attitudes, and
practices of law enforcement in addressing vehicle pursuits. Through
examination of the latest research on the topic, participants learn
why suspects flee, why officers feel compelled to pursue, and the
pressures on field supervisors to monitor and control pursuits. The
emphasis of the course is to provide the officer, police supervisor,
or manager with vital information necessary in making “defensible,”
rapid decisions in the field. The decisions will be based on legal
and moral criteria, including the importance of safety to everyone
involved in the pursuit.
This
pursuit course was developed with the input and assistance of the top
police civil defense attorneys and police risk managers in the
nation--people who work full-time to defend officers in federal courts
against allegations of constitutional misconduct by officers.
CUTTING EDGE TRAINING, LLC,
asked them a simple
question:
What do you want your
defendant police officer, supervisor, and manager to know before he or
she takes the stand following a pursuit tragedy?
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IN STATE COURT:
for negligence issues arising from policy violations and the inability
to articulate the need to apprehend this offender at this moment.
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IN FEDERAL COURT:
against allegations of civil rights
deprivations for any force during the pursuit or while
apprehending a subject.
This
is the information the professionals who defend you want you to know
before you turn on your emergency
lights and siren!
Course Content:
- Introduction to Pursuit Issues
- Pressures in Pursuit Decision Making
- Pursuit Myth versus Reality
- Articulating Your Pursuit Decisions (making sure they stand up
in court in your defense)
- Pursuit Dynamics Decision-making
- Adopting a Defensible "Personal Pursuit Policy"
-
Defensible Tactics at the Pursuit Terminus
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