Stuff You Should Know - SYSK Selects: How Police Chases Work

Episode Date: September 5, 2020

Entire TV shows are dedicated to them and Americans love to watch a live one, but police chases aren't as routine as they seem. While police assert chases are important tools, critics say cops engage ...in chases too often and too easily. Learn all about the what, how, and why in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.
Starting point is 00:00:17 We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass
Starting point is 00:00:37 and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.
Starting point is 00:00:57 Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey everybody, it's me, Josh, your old pal, your old buddy, and I'm here with another SYSK Selects. And this week, it's all about police chases. We released this episode back in May of 2013, and it's one of those things where you think you have
Starting point is 00:01:19 an idea about how something works or what something is, and the more you dig into it, the more you realize that like, wow, we've all just kind of been going along with this thing that probably shouldn't exist. So it was a real eye-opening experience to me, and I hope even if you've heard the episode before, that you find it an eye-opening again. Let's all just watch our eyes open
Starting point is 00:01:41 if you can do such a thing. I don't even know if that's possible. Welcome to Step You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio's How Stuff Works. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, who's, you know, someone on Twitter said that every time Chuck Bryant giggles, a baby bunny is born. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:02:04 Yeah. Yeah, and they meant it, too. Wow. Yeah. I love being responsible for all that joy in the world. You're doing it, man. So I guess you just opened the show with, you were being chased by a police car in Great Britain?
Starting point is 00:02:15 Yeah. You were being chased by a police car in Great Britain? Yeah. You were being chased by a police car in Great Britain? Yeah. You did a British siren? I guess it was. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:27 I didn't mean to do that. You're in the United States. We have different sounding sirens. Whoa. Well, in these days, it's all kinds of crazy, like, beeps and whistles. Yeah, it's like, beep-bop-boop-boop. That's like an American police cruiser today.
Starting point is 00:02:41 Wow. This one's getting off to a great start. Let's try to keep it on track. All right. On the EVOC track. Yeah, this is in our long-running law enforcement series. Yeah. It's unequaled by any other topic except for death, I think.
Starting point is 00:03:00 You think? I think death might have it beat. Okay. Maybe not, though. We'll find out. All right. I guess go count them after this. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:10 Chuck, have you ever been in a police chase? Have you ever been the object of pursuit in a police chase? Yeah. I was not driving. I was in a car one time when my friend decided to run from the cops. Wow. Lay it on us. Well, you know, it was just one of those things.
Starting point is 00:03:28 We were in Athens and he made a very bad decision. Oh. And we got away with it. No way. Yeah. Well, see, that's something that I find extremely interesting because I didn't realize until reading this article that there are very few circumstances where a cop should feel justified or would be justified in chasing you.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Right? Sure. But that said, there are almost no laws whatsoever restricting police chases. Right. It's this weird gray area and I actually found there's activists online who are saying, like, say no to police chases. Like, restrict police chases. Like, create laws against police chases because these things are deadly and dangerous.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Yeah. I think what, about 140 innocent civilians were killed last year? Yeah. About a person a day on average dies from a police chase and about a third of those. But yeah, I think last year is 140 or just innocent bystanders. Yeah. I mean, that happened in Atlanta. That's happened in Atlanta a couple of times recently.
Starting point is 00:04:28 One time the trainer for the Atlanta Braves, his, because he lost his wife to a cop smashing into her. Jeez. And then again, more recently, there was another case. I think it was a kid or something, but it was like, it was sort of in the news lately. Yeah. And you get the impression that, and cops die too. Sure.
Starting point is 00:04:47 Like, high speed pursuit is their high speed pursuing. That's dangerous for everybody involved, including the cop. But you get the impression that, like, whatever the circumstances is, just not pulling over for being, for a cop trying to pull you over. Yeah. Is reason enough to get the cops' hackles raised enough to chase you. Yeah. Right off the bat, I think that would be any cop's instinct is gun it.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Not like, well, let me check into his record and call my supervisor and see if they allow this, which a lot of times is policy. Now, as we'll see, there are procedures in place to kind of try to tamp down that emotion of the primary cop pursuit. Like, departmental policy, basically, though, like you said, not law. Right. So, well, let's talk about this. Okay.
Starting point is 00:05:31 When you go through the academy and you get all your training, your gun training, you're hanging out with Tackleberry and... You learn how to make cool sounds, like machine gun sounds. Exactly. Or like... Yeah. Huh? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:45 You spend about a week, probably a little less, learning how to drive the car. Yeah. Sadly, only about two of those days are dedicated to high-speed pursuit. Yeah, which apparently is an improvement over zero days, which is how it used to be. And like the 40s and 50s. Yeah. I guess they just said, good luck. Right.
Starting point is 00:06:04 You should know how to drive fast. Right. You know, if you're an old country sheriff, you probably ran moonshine. Or your cousin does, at least. Yeah. But there is a lot to it. Ed Grabbunowski, the Grabster, points out that, you know, in a high-speed pursuit, a cop's car can be just as deadly as a cop's gun, and they need to know how to use it just
Starting point is 00:06:25 as well and just as accurately. Yeah. Because not only do you have to know how to drive, you have to know how to drive fast while you're also turning on the lights and the sirens and like... Yeah, sure. Calling in something and like all that other stuff has to be second nature to you so that you can focus on the driving while using just a minimal amount of your brain power on the other stuff.
Starting point is 00:06:44 Yeah. So part of the car training is just that how to run a police car stuff because it's not like every other car. Right. And if you are being trained to drive in high speeds in pursuit of a suspect and they send you to Colorado, you can be reasonably assured that you're going to come back among the better trained police in the country because the Colorado State Police maintain a course, an emergency vehicles operation course that is the cream of the crop.
Starting point is 00:07:13 Did you see like the aerial view of it? Yeah. I mean they cover all the scenarios like on-ramps and off-ramps, high-speed turns, intersections. They've really got it all laid out there and put you in a scenario where as close as you could get to like an active street. Right. It's like there's skid plates. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:32 One of friction is 0.15 compared Chuck to say, I'm just saying this off the top of my head, a coefficient of friction of like 0.95 on a dry highway. Yeah. So that's slick. Yeah, that is slick. They need to know how to not spin out basically. Yeah. And that's, I think the exception is a really elaborate course like this.
Starting point is 00:07:51 I think a lot of local police still use the parking lot and the cones out back. Yeah. Which is better than that. You hit an orange cone. You docked a day. You put an egg on it like Brady Bunch. I remember that one. God, that was one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Starting point is 00:08:08 The Brady Bunch? Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about pursuit equipment, right? Basically what we just said was police training. You get a couple of days maybe. If you're lucky, you get a few days on like a really great course maybe out in Colorado. Yeah. For the most part, it's like, you know how to drive, just drive really fast.
Starting point is 00:08:28 Here's your Crown Vic. Yeah. The Ford Crown Victoria is the most common police car, although they're using all sorts of different cars today. When you drive around, you'll see like those Dodge Chargers and like the more souped up. I know, I think in LA, the state patrol had those Mustangs. Yeah. Like the really souped up sports cars.
Starting point is 00:08:47 Apparently, they're getting away from Crown Victoria's because that model of car had a big problem with it, whereas if you were rear ended in a high speed collision, your car blew up. Was that the Pacer that did that in the 70s? No, the Pinto. Pinto. The Ford Pinto, again, the Ford, had the opposite problem if you collided with something on the front end.
Starting point is 00:09:08 Oh, I thought it was the rear. I think it was the front. I think it was the rear. Well, let me tell you this. Either way. I learned about it from the movie Top Secret, where a Pinto like just barely hits a tree on its front and blows up, and then Ford Ambulances for a while were blown up too. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:09:24 Yeah. And then with the police inceptor Crown Vic created this chemical fire suppression system, where right when you're rear ended at a high enough impact, you're forceful enough impact, this fire suppression thing goes off. So even if there's not a fire, there's not going to be a fire anyway. But apparently, it's enough that some people are like, yeah, we're going to go with the Intrepid. You see a lot of Crown Vicks in Atlanta too, just regular people driving them.
Starting point is 00:09:54 Yeah. It's like sort of a thing now. Yeah, it is. It looks like a cop car. Complete with a little spotlight, yeah. Don't mess with me like that on the highway. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best
Starting point is 00:10:41 decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia
Starting point is 00:10:57 starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s, called on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart Podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road.
Starting point is 00:11:24 Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you.
Starting point is 00:11:42 Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:11:54 Life in relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. So there are some differences, of course, between a police car.
Starting point is 00:12:31 If you think it's just a regular Crown Victoria, it is not or whatever it is. A lot of times it does have more horsepower in the engine because they need that kind of juice. And they weigh more, obviously, than your standard car because there's more guns and things. Uh-huh. You're going to have like a metal reinforced seat backs and things so like you can't get stabbed in the back from the back seat.
Starting point is 00:12:54 Prevents stabbing. If you did, or shootings or anything, if you didn't do a good job of checking for weapons. What else? Extra transmission coolers and oil coolers? Yeah, because I mean like, bigger radiators, cops, like they don't turn their car off ever. Yeah. Like the heat builds up so they have like oil coolers and transmission fluid coolers. Bigger alternators to supply more power.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Yep, up to 130 amps, if that means anything to you. And lights. Well, and vinyl seats, though, in the rear. That's important. Yeah. You're never going to find cloth interior in the back of a police car because... Suspects are dirty. They're dirty, and oftentimes they will poop and vomit and bleed.
Starting point is 00:13:34 And just do whatever. Whatever bodily fluid they can get out in that police car, they probably will. So they want to make it easily, you just get out the 409 and the paper towels and just clean it right there. That's grotesque. Yeah. Lights. Apparently, they used to have them on the Fenders in the 30s, and they said, you know what?
Starting point is 00:13:54 This is visible, but it's not as visible as if it were on the roof. So they created what's known as the light bar, which was a little more recent than I thought it was the 70s that these things made their debut. And I thought back, I was like, oh yeah, you never see cars in the 60s or even early 70s with that light bar. So I was born in about the time the light bar came along. Yeah. I think you remember seeing the single siren sometimes, or the double blue...
Starting point is 00:14:22 Dirty Harry would put on and do like a Yui. Well, some were built in, but yeah, they also had the undercover cars. That was one of the great parts of any cop movie was when they got out the siren and put it on the roof. And now you can get them at Spencer's Gifts. Some are blue and some are red though. I've never known the distinction. I always thought ambulances were red and cops were blue, but in different cities I've seen
Starting point is 00:14:44 cops have red. Yeah. I think it depends on what side of the force you're on. Oh, really? Yeah. Like... How your midi-chlorines are. Your Jedi or a Sith.
Starting point is 00:14:53 So one thing they can do to prevent the chase from happening altogether, you've seen the old spike strip. Yeah. You've seen these rubber mats with spikes all across the road. Or they have them like an accordion that you just kind of throw and hang on to one end and you throw the other end. Oh, yeah. That's the quick version.
Starting point is 00:15:11 Yeah. And so that'll obviously disable the tires. You can... The good old-fashioned roadblock that you see in movies actually happens. Sure. They line up cars and except in this version there's not a conveniently parked tow truck ramp right beside it for the criminal to jump over everybody or bust through, I guess. You have to be careful setting those up because it's normally going...
Starting point is 00:15:35 The criminal's not going to try to push through the car, but they may try to go around so you have to make sure that if you set up this roadblock it's not like going to funnel them into somebody's house. Yeah. I don't think you do that in like a neighborhood. Right. That would be a good idea. You want to do it on a country road.
Starting point is 00:15:51 And then modern techniques, which I think if they bring this stuff along, that's really where it's at, like microwave technology to disable the electrical system in the car or shooting a laser, high-speed avoidance using laser technology, halt system, of course. Halt. But they left out a couple of letters there. Oh, yeah. It should be... I hate that.
Starting point is 00:16:13 Halt. It's not an acronym if you're leaving out words just to make it a cute word. No. All right. It would be like a Laotian last name if they spelled it out correctly. So in that case, they're shooting a laser to cut off your fuel supply, but here's the rub there is the vehicle that they're shooting it at has this special microchip in it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:34 I didn't look into that. Did you? Is it like newer vehicles all have them? That's my guess is that they're going to start putting these in all cars or something like they make some deal with the cops. That would be fine with me. I mean, it's better than pursuing somebody. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:16:46 You know? And then, of course, you have air support either in the form of a police helicopter or like 50 news helicopters if it's a police chase out in California. Or the world's scariest police chase helicopter. Yeah. Whoever those guys are. I think they just get footage from news copters and cop copters. Do you watch the shows?
Starting point is 00:17:07 I know I've talked about cops. I've seen them before. Yeah. Yeah. They're just so... I don't know. I follow it. That's one of my guilty pleasures.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Do you watch those still? Yeah. I mean, it's not appointment television. I never know when or where they come on. But if I'm flipping it around and I'll see a police chase, I live in L.A. It's sort of a thing. It really is a thing, isn't it? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:28 And apparently, California has some of the most police protective laws as far as pursuits go. They happen a lot out there. Yeah. And everybody just stops doing what they're doing and watches the live coverage of it. Sort of. I remember the guy who killed himself on live television after a police pursuit and showed it on Fox, I guess.
Starting point is 00:17:48 I saw that when it happened live. Yeah. I remember very distinctly. It was like, not like a movie. No. You know? Like if you've ever seen someone shoot their head off with a shotgun in real life, it's nothing like...
Starting point is 00:18:01 Yeah. It's not some big dramatic movie thing. It's just sad. Yeah. It really was. Yeah. It was like he might have been making origami or something. It was just that pedestrian or it was just like he just had the gun and he'd pull it
Starting point is 00:18:16 up and shot himself and he hunches over and just falls. Yeah. It's weird. It was really weird to see. It was very sad. And of course, all the kids that saw that, that's like, it's terrible. So initially, if someone takes off like you were talking about, the police officer that's on the scene has a decision to make to pursue or not to pursue lots of policies.
Starting point is 00:18:39 One thing they want to do is run the tags. Is it a stolen vehicle? Were they just in an armed robbery? Or is it just somebody who has a couple of traffic tickets out or nothing at all on their record? Apparently, the pursuit that enjoys the widest support around the country is if it's a violent criminal, somebody who poses an imminent threat to somebody else, somebody who's just carried out a violent act and is escaping.
Starting point is 00:19:05 Like pretty much everybody says, chase that guy. Like if you said the person has a couple of traffic tickets or if they have nothing. And they're the only reason to chase them is that they didn't pull over for you. That is not reason to pursue. And yet 43% of all pursuits, and I believe 2011, were for traffic violations. Yeah. I feel for the cops, it's got to be their instinct, like go get that person. They're fleeing me for a good reason.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Like I get it, but when people are innocent, people are dying, there needs to be some policy in place for sure. And apparently, Chuck, 91.4% of chases were for nonviolent crimes. I believe that. So if the cop says, okay, this car just came back stolen, that guy just waved a gun. And it's a very clear case that he should pursue. Go get him. There are other things to consider.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Don't go get him. What's traffic like? What's the word of the road conditions like? Is it rainy? Is it dark? Are you in a neighborhood? Are there pedestrians everywhere? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:11 You might want to just kind of slowly tail the guy. Well, the one in Atlanta where they killed the trainer's wife, I think it was a sort of a busy afternoon in an urban area, like they shouldn't have been pursuing anyone at this point. Do you know what they were pursuing the person for? No. I don't remember. And so if they decide to go ahead and pursue, then this series of procedures kind of come
Starting point is 00:20:36 into place. Yeah. Like they need to be radio and back into headquarters. Yeah, like immediately. Right. And apparently, every step of the way, or they just kind of keep whoever they're talking to their supervisor posted on what's going on, the supervisor's role is to keep a cool head because they're not the one who the person isn't pulling over for.
Starting point is 00:20:57 So they're not mad. Sure. They don't want to crack heads, you know? So their whole role is to say, you know what, like we should, you just told me that there's some pedestrians around, this guy's not a violent offender, don't complete this pursuit. Or we have chopper coverage, so back off with the cars and we can still follow this car from above. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Like we're still going to get our guy, don't you worry about it. One of my favorite things, if you watch the show Cops, you are well versed with the pit maneuver, police, I'm sorry, pursuit intervention technique, also called the tactical vehicle intervention. And that is the famous move. If a cop has, you know, you'll hear them, they have to get clearance for the pit maneuver even. Yeah, I would imagine.
Starting point is 00:21:47 They'll call it in and say, hey, I think I've got a chance for a pit. Can I take it? And they'll say, if you feel like, you know, the streets are clear enough and, you know, you have to do it on a turn, you don't just like, run up beside someone and run them off the road. It's when they enter a turn, the cop hits the gas and hits them on the left rear bumper and just basically spins them out. And it works, if done correctly.
Starting point is 00:22:12 And they'll train, you know, you get trained when you get the defensive driving on the pit maneuver. And they just spin out? Yep. And you can't come out of it. You can't come out of it, your car spins, and that's generally on cops at least when the guys will jump out of the car with the car still rolling and take off on foot. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:30 And then you hear these cops, you know, with the, they're mic'd up, so all you hear is like running in the dark with all this gear on, you're like, man, what a crappy job. Well, you know, Chuck, your heavy breathing just reminded me of something. Is it that time? It's time for a message break. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and
Starting point is 00:23:06 dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal?
Starting point is 00:23:27 No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:23:51 Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place, because I'm here to help. This I promise you.
Starting point is 00:24:14 Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS, because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life, step
Starting point is 00:24:30 by step. Oh, not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. And so tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye.
Starting point is 00:24:48 Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right. Heavy breathing indeed. So you were talking about the wildest police chases that kind of show that you like. I don't know who would watch stuff like that. Well, Grabster takes the task, those kind of shows for presenting a very unbalanced picture of police chases.
Starting point is 00:25:24 They don't show the cops backing off if a pursuit becomes too dangerous. They don't show the cops crashing into an innocent bystander's car. Right. They never say, well, this cop probably shouldn't have pursued this person, because this is a minor violation. And they always kind of tend to present the police in a favorable light. Yeah. And I think it's more, I don't know if they're out to make, oh, maybe they are.
Starting point is 00:25:51 I just think it's better TV, obviously, like you wouldn't want to show when they're like, oh, nope, let's just back off and go back to the donut shop. Yeah, I get that for sure. Plus also they want to maintain the kind of relationship with cops, police departments that where they'll give them their footage. Absolutely. You know? No, those shows are good for the cops, I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:26:09 We hear, I don't know if you can hear this, people. Sounds like a police chase is going on outside right now. I think it is. This is really dramatic footage, Chuck. Do you remember the OJ thing specifically? Yeah. Where were you then? I was in college.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Were you in college? Yeah. Yeah, I remember too, of course. The chase wasn't, I didn't watch much of the chase. I remember the verdict. Yeah, I remember the chase specifically because it was during the Knicks Rockets NBA playoffs and my buddy Justin is a huge Knicks fan and he was really upset and he was just like, do you have to have it on every channel?
Starting point is 00:26:49 And I agreed with him. It's like, why, you know, you're going to preempt the basketball game, it's on a hundred channels. I can't, isn't there one person out there that wants to watch the basketball game? Yeah, really. I bet their ratings would have gone through the roof. And that was a low speed chase. That wasn't even, that was just weird.
Starting point is 00:27:03 Yeah. Well, low speed chases are very weird. I'm AC. It's just like, you know who I am? I'm not going to pull over. Yeah. So, well, let's talk about the legalities of it, right? There's, like we said, there's pretty much no laws that restrict police chases.
Starting point is 00:27:19 They have the right to do that in all cases. Yeah. And as a matter of fact, they don't even have to have their license sirens running to engage in pursuit. Yeah, that's a fallacy. There are department procedures regarding police chases though. Yeah. And the thing is, is even if a cop violates department procedure and continues a pursuit,
Starting point is 00:27:40 they're still not breaking any laws. Right. So, for example, in Washington, D.C., you can only pursue if the suspect has engaged in a violent act or someone could be seriously hurt if the suspect were allowed to escape. Right. In Des Moines, Iowa, no more than three cars can engage in a pursuit. Yeah, that makes good sense. It's a good rule.
Starting point is 00:28:03 You have to take into account the time of day, road and weather conditions, the nature of the offense, and a supervisor has to pursue, has to approve the pursuit. Right. And then in Florida, Orange County, Florida, that's the Orlando area. Yeah. Are they the ones that have real restrictive policies? Yeah. And as a matter of fact, they found that after, in the year after they enacted their restrictive
Starting point is 00:28:28 pursuit policies, felonies in Orlando declined. Yeah. What's up with that? I don't know. One of those weird things. Yeah. There is also something called sovereign immunity, which is a government official, is not liable for damages that occur while they're doing their job.
Starting point is 00:28:47 Yeah, that's like old-time common law. Yeah, old school. But these days, there are a lot of municipalities that have overwritten that law with other laws, and like I think with the Georgia case, I think that cop was fired and brought up on charges, and I think they could even sue the police station. Yeah, with the cop himself. But not the cop himself. In overriding the sovereign immunity laws, most departments or communities protect the
Starting point is 00:29:16 cops individually. But the... Financially. But the institution can still be sued. Right. But they're not protected criminally. They can still be brought up on charges, they just can't be sued, I think. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:29:27 Because I'm pretty sure this brave guy, I think he went up on trial. Well, apparently... And if I'm wrong, then I'm going to eat crow, but... In California, you're basically out of luck if the cops mess up your storefront with their cars during a pursuit, because their laws very much protect the cops from that kind of liability. I would like to think insurance would help out, though. You would hope.
Starting point is 00:29:50 But I mean, then your rates are going to rise. What were you doing? Nothing. I was in the wrong place. In L.A. Jeez. So that's police chases. You got anything else?
Starting point is 00:30:00 I got nothing else. They seem way more dangerous than I even thought, and I thought they were pretty dangerous before. Yeah. Don't support those TV shows, people. Don't listen to me. Don't be like Chuck. Don't be like Chuck.
Starting point is 00:30:10 Yeah. Do as he says, not as he does. That's right. If you want to learn more about police chases, you can type those words into the search bar at HowStuffWorks. And since I said search bar, what is it, Chuck, is it time for listener mail? It normally would be, but I do not have a listener mail prepared. Instead, we are going to have a call out, which we do every now and then, a couple of
Starting point is 00:30:30 things that help us out, people, in our job with your free podcast, is if you go to iTunes and you leave us a review and a rating, that helps us out. So we would invite people to do that. And I know we always mention our home on the web is stuffyoushouldknow.com, but we really would like to send people there to check it out. And we've got videos, and blogs, and image galleries, and some really cool animated stuff. And it's like, I'm proud of this website.
Starting point is 00:30:57 It's a great website. It really is. And I know some of you have supported it, and we would like to ask others to go out there and check it out. Yeah. And leave us a review on iTunes and check out the website. Check out stuffyoushouldknow.com. And thank you, and we'll be back with listener mail next time.
Starting point is 00:31:09 And also, why don't we take a second to plug our Kiva team at kiva.org, that's k-i-v-a dot org slash team slash stuffyoushouldknow, you can join the stuffyoushouldknow team and donate to entrepreneurs around the world in developing countries. Not donate. Lynn, that's right. I'm sorry. Loaning money. It can get back if you want it.
Starting point is 00:31:30 In $25 increments, yeah. And you can re-loan, or you can get it back, or whatever. But it's a really great program. And we're marching on toward the $2 million goal, right? $2 million bucks. We're hoping by August, I believe. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:44 That's kiva.org slash team slash stuffyoushouldknow, and stuffyoushouldknow.com, and iTunes, that's right. Thanks for the support. If you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuffyoushouldknow. And if you want to send an email to Chuck, Jerry, and me, you can address it to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Starting point is 00:32:12 For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it.
Starting point is 00:32:45 Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Heart Podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever
Starting point is 00:33:18 have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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