Just watched French Connection again (great movie). At one point in the film Gene Hackman, chasing a gunman, flags down a private car and shouts, ‘Police emergency! I need your car!’ The guy gives it up, but did he have to by law? Do the police have the power to commandeer stuff in an emergency situation? (The film is set in NY in the 70s.)
The police have the same power to commandeer a vehicle as any other carjacker would.
SDSAB staff-person gfactor discusses, April 25, 2006.
ETA: He includes extensive references too.
The operative word here is “emergency”. Increasingly, law enforcement agencies are no longer considering it an “emergency” to use lethal force to detain or apprehend a fleeing suspect when there is no indication of a crime in progress or that the suspect is a clear and present danger to lives, property or public order.
If that is true (I’m not sure it is, but it is my understanding from recent news reports), then merely chasing a fleeing suspect would also not meet the test of “emergency” for the purposes of commandeering private property or the aid of civilians.
The movie, while based on a book and a true story, had a lot of fiction in it to spice up the movie. I don’t remember that scene in the book; however, it’s been a few decades since I read it.