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Insurers force change on police departments long resistant to it
The high cost of settlements over police misconduct has led insurers to demand police departments overhaul tactics or forgo coverage
https://wapo.st/3Lh9xih
ST. ANN, Mo. — A patrol officer spotted a white minivan with an expired license plate, flipped on his lights and siren, and when the driver failed to stop, gave chase. The driver fled in rush-hour traffic at speeds of up to 90 mph, as other officers joined in the pursuit. Ten miles later, the van slammed into a green Toyota Camry, leaving its 55-year-old driver, Brent Cox, permanently disabled.
That 2017 police chase was at the time the latest in a long line of questionable vehicle pursuits by officers of the St. Ann Police Department. Eleven people had been injured in 19 crashes during high-speed pursuits over the two prior years. Social justice activists and reporters were scrutinizing the department, and Cox and others were suing.
Undeterred, St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez stood behind the high-octane pursuits and doubled down on the department’s decades-old motto: “St. Ann will chase you until the wheels fall off.”
Then, an otherwise silent stakeholder stepped in. The St. Louis Area Insurance Trust risk pool — which provided liability coverage to the city of St. Ann and the police department — threatened to cancel coverage if the department didn’t impose restrictions on its use of police chases. City officials shopped around for alternative coverage but soon learned that costs would nearly double if they did not agree to their insurer’s demands.
Jimenez’s attitude swiftly shifted: In 2019, 18 months after the chase that left Cox permanently disabled, the chief and his 48-member department agreed to ban high-speed pursuits for traffic infractions and minor, nonviolent crimes.
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Jimenez said in an interview. “If I didn’t do it, the insurance rates were going to go way up. I was going to have to lose 10 officers to pay for it.”
Where community activists, use-of-force victims and city officials have failed to persuade police departments to change dangerous and sometimes deadly policing practices, insurers are successfully dictating changes to tactics and policies, mostly at small to medium-size departments throughout the nation.
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High speed pursuits are absurd. I hope all the insurance companies do this.
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Years ago my wife and I drove through the middle of a bunch of cops with drawn guns on both sides of the road aiming at a guy in an old car that had been stopped. We had no idea what we were doing or what was going on. No cops were trying to stop traffic-all of them were aiming their guns at the car. We realized what we were doing right as we drove slowly through their line of aim along with a number of other cars doing the same thing. The next day the local newspaper had an article about it-the guy hadn't stopped when an officer put on his lights and he led a half dozen cop cars on a high speed chase until he finally stopped. That particular chase ended without a problem but there was surely the potential for tragedy during the chase and while the officers were aiming their weapons without any seeming consideration for the citizens driving through their line of aim. Crazy.
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I see the point, but there is a risk to the new policy, in that somebody being pulled over may figure that all he has to do is continue driving and maybe speed up, and he will end up going free. This would be particularly true in the case of a stolen vehicle, where there is no obvious way to connect the driver to the license plate. I don't have a solution to the problem. We do know that in the Los Angeles area, the police and highway patrol will sometimes break off a chase due to risky conditions, and sometimes they know who the driver is and figure to make an arrest at some later time.
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Republicans will solve with "tort reform". (read: prevent little people from suing big people)
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Speedy wrote:
Insurers force change on police departments long resistant to it
The high cost of settlements over police misconduct has led insurers to demand police departments overhaul tactics or forgo coverage
https://wapo.st/3Lh9xih
ST. ANN, Mo. — A patrol officer spotted a white minivan with an expired license plate, flipped on his lights and siren, and when the driver failed to stop, gave chase. The driver fled in rush-hour traffic at speeds of up to 90 mph, as other officers joined in the pursuit. Ten miles later, the van slammed into a green Toyota Camry, leaving its 55-year-old driver, Brent Cox, permanently disabled.
That 2017 police chase was at the time the latest in a long line of questionable vehicle pursuits by officers of the St. Ann Police Department. Eleven people had been injured in 19 crashes during high-speed pursuits over the two prior years. Social justice activists and reporters were scrutinizing the department, and Cox and others were suing.
Undeterred, St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez stood behind the high-octane pursuits and doubled down on the department’s decades-old motto: “St. Ann will chase you until the wheels fall off.”
Then, an otherwise silent stakeholder stepped in. The St. Louis Area Insurance Trust risk pool — which provided liability coverage to the city of St. Ann and the police department — threatened to cancel coverage if the department didn’t impose restrictions on its use of police chases. City officials shopped around for alternative coverage but soon learned that costs would nearly double if they did not agree to their insurer’s demands.
Jimenez’s attitude swiftly shifted: In 2019, 18 months after the chase that left Cox permanently disabled, the chief and his 48-member department agreed to ban high-speed pursuits for traffic infractions and minor, nonviolent crimes.
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Jimenez said in an interview. “If I didn’t do it, the insurance rates were going to go way up. I was going to have to lose 10 officers to pay for it.”
Where community activists, use-of-force victims and city officials have failed to persuade police departments to change dangerous and sometimes deadly policing practices, insurers are successfully dictating changes to tactics and policies, mostly at small to medium-size departments throughout the nation.
Would never happen in Minneapolis, you don't have to renew your tabs anymore. I'm sure you won't mind when you get hit by a guy with no insurance and no tabs that the police have witnessed driving around dozens of times but are powerless to stop them.
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C(-)ris wrote:
[quote=Speedy]
Insurers force change on police departments long resistant to it
The high cost of settlements over police misconduct has led insurers to demand police departments overhaul tactics or forgo coverage
https://wapo.st/3Lh9xih
ST. ANN, Mo. — A patrol officer spotted a white minivan with an expired license plate, flipped on his lights and siren, and when the driver failed to stop, gave chase. The driver fled in rush-hour traffic at speeds of up to 90 mph, as other officers joined in the pursuit. Ten miles later, the van slammed into a green Toyota Camry, leaving its 55-year-old driver, Brent Cox, permanently disabled.
That 2017 police chase was at the time the latest in a long line of questionable vehicle pursuits by officers of the St. Ann Police Department. Eleven people had been injured in 19 crashes during high-speed pursuits over the two prior years. Social justice activists and reporters were scrutinizing the department, and Cox and others were suing.
Undeterred, St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez stood behind the high-octane pursuits and doubled down on the department’s decades-old motto: “St. Ann will chase you until the wheels fall off.”
Then, an otherwise silent stakeholder stepped in. The St. Louis Area Insurance Trust risk pool — which provided liability coverage to the city of St. Ann and the police department — threatened to cancel coverage if the department didn’t impose restrictions on its use of police chases. City officials shopped around for alternative coverage but soon learned that costs would nearly double if they did not agree to their insurer’s demands.
Jimenez’s attitude swiftly shifted: In 2019, 18 months after the chase that left Cox permanently disabled, the chief and his 48-member department agreed to ban high-speed pursuits for traffic infractions and minor, nonviolent crimes.
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Jimenez said in an interview. “If I didn’t do it, the insurance rates were going to go way up. I was going to have to lose 10 officers to pay for it.”
Where community activists, use-of-force victims and city officials have failed to persuade police departments to change dangerous and sometimes deadly policing practices, insurers are successfully dictating changes to tactics and policies, mostly at small to medium-size departments throughout the nation.
Would never happen in Minneapolis, you don't have to renew your tabs anymore. I'm sure you won't mind when you get hit by a guy with no insurance and no tabs that the police have witnessed driving around dozens of times but are powerless to stop them.
Yep, Minneapolis has become a hell hole ever since we started locking up criminal killer cops.
https://www.minneapolis.org/media/facts-...accolades/
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It's all about the Benjamins; Always has been and always will be!
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Police will find a way to defund themselves, and sorry, crime will not increase as a result. The business model has been broken for decades.
“We can’t do without X because everyone else depends on X” is convenient, lazy, obvious, and ultimately a failed argument for most anything.
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