NCJ Number
173026
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 24 Issue: 11 Dated: November 1997 Pages: 30-33-57
Date Published
1997
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes the police pursuit driver training provided by Suffolk and Nassau Counties (New York).
Abstract
Nassau County trains recruits in maneuvering for 3 days at an old airfield set up with cones and tires, including a lane change, stop sign, and emergency stop. The 25- to 30-person class is divided in half so the instructors can work with a small number at a time. Recruits are lectured in the morning, then go to the course for hands-on training, including an aided case with an ambulance, in which the officer drives the ambulance to the hospital while the driver is in the back with the patient. Suffolk County's training course is an old missile base with streets laid out with stop signs, traffic lights, and a sprinkler system that can make the curves slippery. The recruits have classroom training first, which deals with county policies, pursuit policy, civil liability, and the physical principles of driving the car. Civil liability is the impetus in the push toward standardized training. An agency's pursuit policy greatly determines the number and character of pursuits. The Metro-Dade Police Department (Florida), for example, has adopted a policy of pursuing only those suspects believed to have committed a violent felony; under this policy, the number of police pursuits dropped 82 percent. Nassau County is more restrictive than the rest of the Nation. It is restrictive about who can chase (no chases with unmarked cars) and how many cars can chase; further, a pursuit can only be undertaken when a serious felony is involved; roadblocks are banned. This article also discusses inservice training.