Here in Boston, I don’t ever recall seeing a high speed car chase on TV. I’ve seen YouTube videos of car chases in LAX and Dallas. Do they ever get away once a helicopter gets on the scene?
This guy nearly escaped when he drove to his house, took off his jacket and casually walked away. The news crew spotted him and notified the police.
Too funny. Ballsy move by the guy. Amazingly observant helicopter reporter.
I saw one live on TV, about ten years ago, somewhere in the Los Angeles area. The car did a totally crazy drive through major streets and intersections, sending all the surrounding cars swerving and skidding all over the road (especially at the intersections with cross-traffic) – just like in the movies! The driver did a majorly great job of swerving around all the other cars – DAMN, he was a good hot-shot driver.
Then he turned into some smaller side-street, where the view was obscured by a multi-story structure. After waiting a minute or so, the car never came back out of that side-street, nor ever came out the other end of that little block. And when the helicopter got directly overhead, there was no car in the block. :dubious: :smack: It just disappeared!
Well, it turned out that the multi-story structure was a parking garage, and the car had turned into that. The driver had nonchalantly parked somewhere in the structure, and the people got out (apparently there were more people in the car than just the driver), and they casually ambled into a nearby department store.
I have no idea how they were recognized and apprehended in the department store, but about a half hour later on the news, that’s what they said happened. 
Within a few weeks, give or take, of seeing that crazy car chase described above, I saw another one live on TV. In this one also, he (or they) didn’t get away, but it was also kind of a doozy.
Car chase ended up on a major highway in some semi-rural area (I’m thinking like somewhere on the edges of Simi Valley or Agua Dulce or some such place, for those of you who know those areas). I think it began in a more urban area and ended up out in the country.
Anyway, the driver finally ditched the car – he literally drove it off the edge of the road into a ditch. He jumped out, climbed over a nearby fence, and ran across the property there.
Well, that property appeared to be a country club or some such opulent place. There was an expansive well-tended lawn that he ran across. In the background there was a smallish grove of palm trees. Beyond that, in the far background, was a gazebo and a bunch of people sitting on folding chairs on the lawn around the gazebo.
The police pulled over by the ditch and climbed over the fence too, and chase the guy across the lawn, although he had quite a head start. Immediately, two or three people from the gazebo area took off chasing the guy too. They were wearing white tuxedos. I think it may have been a wedding or similar formal outdoor event.
So they caught up with the guy before the police did, and tackled him and took him down – all in their bright white tuxedos.
Yes.
Not a true police chase, but about 15 years ago I was running camera in a news helicopter over Baltimore. We were trailing an illegal dirt-biker through the streets of the city just for the footage for a story we were working on. He eventually spotted us and began to attempt to ditch us.
He succeeded. Took a couple minutes then he did a double back when he was hidden behind a building and that was it. When I checked the tape later I spotted him heading out of the area.
I’ve seen at least one on Cops end in an escape. The fleeing suspect was on a motorcycle. I’ve also personally talked to cops who have told me that 1 or 2 got away, and usually they were on a motorcycle.
Motorcycles can get between cars and go where the police cruisers can’t. Escaping the helicopter requires the suspect to go into a parking garage or crowded public place with many exits, then quickly blend into the crowd.
It is definitely possible, although the suspect is probably going to have to ditch the bike to escape, and he’d better hope they can’t trace it back to him. Or find the slightest bit of DNA on it and match it to him or a family member they have on record. Or get his cellular subscriber ID from the route he took. Or contact trace him - what crime is he fleeing? Who are the suspects?
These days, getting away with crime is harder than it ever was. Probably a major reason criminals get away with crimes at all is just a lack of money to use all the tricks in the book, or nobody reports the crime in question.
Naturally, there are longer sentences and more laws than there ever were, as well, so…
I’ve seen quite a few on various police shows. Usually they say that the chase was discontinued for reasons of public safety or similar.
The Cops-style fanboy shows are going to preferentially show the subset where the cops win. Any where the bad guy gets away will be edited or voiced over with the “discontinued for public safety” line. So those shows aren’t a representative sample of car chase reality.
I’m not suggesting chases are never discontinued for public safety. They often are, depending on the jurisdiction. I’m suggesting only that that provides a way for the shows to use good footage despite the fact the bad guys “won” one for once; an outcome they *never *want to show.