When someone steals a car and goes on a high-speed rampage through the city, why is it that so many cops chase after them? Is it because more cars are needed to catch the crim/s or is it because the cops like going fast?
It’s nothing to do with cops liking speed. I’ve yet to meet a police officer who has been in a high speed chase who enjoyed the experience. I was in a pursuit once for only about 3 minutes. It was on I-94 near (what was then) County Stadium. We hit speeds of only about 80mph, which isn’t all that fast for a freeway, but when you’re chasing someone it’s light speed!
But I wasn’t driving the squad car. Which contributed to the fact that I was shitting bricks. I had no control of the situation.
What happens on any call, regardless of what it is, officers who aren’t busy respond. This why sometimes you get 5 squad cars showing up to a barking dog complaint. It’s the supervisor (or senior officer’s) job to call out “enough help on the scene”.
During a pursuit you never know how much help you’re going to need. And patrol officers get sucked into calls like this like a vaccum. In 20 seconds you can have half the department chasing the same vehicle. It all happens fast. Really fast.
But if you see 5 squads chasing a car theres a good chance that there would have been 10 chasing had a supervisor not told them to break off.
Perps driving at high speeds to elude police are highly dangerous. They are risking the lives of other people. It’s like someone randomly going around firing a machine gun. The chances someone is going to get killed is high. So the perps have to be stopped now. The more police, the sooner it might stop.
(Which is why police don’t do much during a slow speed chase. The threat is far less and by not hassling the driver, they might prevent it from becoming a high speed chase.)