- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
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- Progressive
Again and again, suspects fleeing police are shot.
The situation I understand is when a suspect is viewed as an 'active shooter', and it's believed that not shooting them creates a large risk to innocent people being killed by them. So let's put that to the side, and talk about other situations, such as someone with warrants fleeing.
When is it justified as a policy?
It's not easy for police to catch a lot of fleeing suspects. Many can outrun police. So, there's a cost to not shooting them - people guilty of crimes can escape punishment, possible for a time, possibly forever, if they run and escape.
On the other hand, there is a price to shooting them, also. Suddenly, a person with a warrant for unpaid child support is executed for running from police to escape that punishment.
There are real tradeoffs, practical issues, moral issues on such policies - just as there are on when police should 'reward' criminals who try to escape in vehicles at high speed, when they put the public safety from the chase ahead of the interest in trying to catch the person.
Disclaimer: I have a bias for guilty people to be caught.
I support things that help them get caught that reduce the price. For example, in the high speed chase situation, things like a strong helicopter resource and/or city camera system might help catch them instead.
The situation I understand is when a suspect is viewed as an 'active shooter', and it's believed that not shooting them creates a large risk to innocent people being killed by them. So let's put that to the side, and talk about other situations, such as someone with warrants fleeing.
When is it justified as a policy?
It's not easy for police to catch a lot of fleeing suspects. Many can outrun police. So, there's a cost to not shooting them - people guilty of crimes can escape punishment, possible for a time, possibly forever, if they run and escape.
On the other hand, there is a price to shooting them, also. Suddenly, a person with a warrant for unpaid child support is executed for running from police to escape that punishment.
There are real tradeoffs, practical issues, moral issues on such policies - just as there are on when police should 'reward' criminals who try to escape in vehicles at high speed, when they put the public safety from the chase ahead of the interest in trying to catch the person.
Disclaimer: I have a bias for guilty people to be caught.
I support things that help them get caught that reduce the price. For example, in the high speed chase situation, things like a strong helicopter resource and/or city camera system might help catch them instead.