Interesting series. Each half-hour episode presents two documentary style stories about people who got into a high-speed car chase with the police. Usually they have serious outstanding warrants, or are in possession of a stolen car, or drugs, or stolen goods, and make the bad decision to try to outrun the cops. They use real camera footage; some scenes, especially when the perp abandons the vehicle and runs on foot, might involve recreations. Which is fine. Helicopter footage is often put to good use in such cases.
I always wonder if they ever consider that their car has a license plate, so unless it's stolen, they're going to be tracked down eventually even if they get away. I've watched about two dozen stories so far and not one "perp" has escaped capture. Maybe they don't show those! Would be interesting to see what happens if they do evade immediate capture.
It can be a bit repetitive, especially if you binge-watch, but still quite interesting. They do interview both the perp and the police officers involved. It's instructive to see how variable the sentences are which are imposed on the miscreants. Unless there are drugs or serious outstanding warrants, the penalties "just" for the chase run from 90 days to maybe 2 years, which seems pretty light to me considering the potential risks to innocents when a car is moving at 100-140 mph while being chased by multiple police cars. In fact, I'm surprised how often the police elect to chase, despite the danger to other drivers and civilians. A lot of these chases run thru city and rural streets and roads and it's only good luck that we don't see passersby killed. The police sometimes use a "pit maneuver" (new term to me!), which basically involves putting the miscreant's car into a spin by pressing the front of the police car against one side of the target's rear bumper. This causes the suspect's vehicle to spin out and I would think this could lead to a really hazardous situation for anyone nearby.
You do get the occasional episodes that are a bit different such as the guy who was speeding to get his pregnant wife to the hospital, which ends with the police officer delivering the baby right on the roadside. No penalty there, not even a speeding ticket. There's also the woman who stops taking her medicine and starts hallucinating about a bomb in her car which will explode if she slows down, like the movie SPEED. No penalty there either (other than 90 days being evaluated in a psych unit) although she was probably at high risk to be shot until the police realized she was sick rather than criminal.
In many cases, the police don't even know WHY the miscreant is running; i find it kind of hard to justify a high-speed chase then, especially since they could possibly use the license number to track down the person later. Even if the perp gets away, maybe that's better than having an innocent person run down accidentally during the chase. I'm watching one episode right now where the perp is throwing paint cans and hardware out the window on the freeway to discourage pursuit and I imagine this would be real dangerous for any driver. Might be time to just let him go...
Final comment: it's amusing how some perps use police type language during their. Interviews, words like "pursuit", "intoxication", "flee" or "incarcerate" instead of "chase", "drunk", "run" or "jail." Maybe that comes from spending days listening to lawyers and cops talking during their trials?
I do recommend this series if it sounds like your kind of thing. Only one season with 13 episodes in 2008, apparently, so maybe it didn't go over so well. Dunno why, much better than some shows that last multiple seasons.
I always wonder if they ever consider that their car has a license plate, so unless it's stolen, they're going to be tracked down eventually even if they get away. I've watched about two dozen stories so far and not one "perp" has escaped capture. Maybe they don't show those! Would be interesting to see what happens if they do evade immediate capture.
It can be a bit repetitive, especially if you binge-watch, but still quite interesting. They do interview both the perp and the police officers involved. It's instructive to see how variable the sentences are which are imposed on the miscreants. Unless there are drugs or serious outstanding warrants, the penalties "just" for the chase run from 90 days to maybe 2 years, which seems pretty light to me considering the potential risks to innocents when a car is moving at 100-140 mph while being chased by multiple police cars. In fact, I'm surprised how often the police elect to chase, despite the danger to other drivers and civilians. A lot of these chases run thru city and rural streets and roads and it's only good luck that we don't see passersby killed. The police sometimes use a "pit maneuver" (new term to me!), which basically involves putting the miscreant's car into a spin by pressing the front of the police car against one side of the target's rear bumper. This causes the suspect's vehicle to spin out and I would think this could lead to a really hazardous situation for anyone nearby.
You do get the occasional episodes that are a bit different such as the guy who was speeding to get his pregnant wife to the hospital, which ends with the police officer delivering the baby right on the roadside. No penalty there, not even a speeding ticket. There's also the woman who stops taking her medicine and starts hallucinating about a bomb in her car which will explode if she slows down, like the movie SPEED. No penalty there either (other than 90 days being evaluated in a psych unit) although she was probably at high risk to be shot until the police realized she was sick rather than criminal.
In many cases, the police don't even know WHY the miscreant is running; i find it kind of hard to justify a high-speed chase then, especially since they could possibly use the license number to track down the person later. Even if the perp gets away, maybe that's better than having an innocent person run down accidentally during the chase. I'm watching one episode right now where the perp is throwing paint cans and hardware out the window on the freeway to discourage pursuit and I imagine this would be real dangerous for any driver. Might be time to just let him go...
Final comment: it's amusing how some perps use police type language during their. Interviews, words like "pursuit", "intoxication", "flee" or "incarcerate" instead of "chase", "drunk", "run" or "jail." Maybe that comes from spending days listening to lawyers and cops talking during their trials?
I do recommend this series if it sounds like your kind of thing. Only one season with 13 episodes in 2008, apparently, so maybe it didn't go over so well. Dunno why, much better than some shows that last multiple seasons.
