chase

A chase (also called a chase ) is the pursuit of a criminal by the police . If the prosecuting authority leaves their territory, one speaks of " pursuit ".

reality

Car chases are a major road safety concern. In the UK , it is estimated that 40 people are killed each year in accidents involving police vehicles .

Situation in Germany

A chase is the name for a special case of an emergency drive by the police and law enforcement officers. In the official language of law enforcement authorities, this happens when a person tries to evade access by law enforcement officers with the help of a motorized vehicle .

The routine stopping process of a car driver by the police becomes a chase at the moment when the stop signals are deliberately ignored and the journey is continued (mostly at increased speed). There are many reasons for this, some examples would be driving without a driver's license, fear of losing a driver's license, wanted offenders , drug and / or alcohol abuse, hit-and-run after a road traffic accident , psychological causes.

A chase is usually carried out with patrol cars . In rare cases, e.g. B. hostage-taking , in which the perpetrator or the perpetrators flee with their hostages in a vehicle, the Mobile Task Force (MEK) is called in. These specialists usually take up the chase in civilian emergency vehicles. An attempt is made to stop the fugitive or the vehicle to be pursued. There are national differences here: In Germany, people try to keep the risk for other road users as low as possible and follow the vehicle until there is an opportunity to stop it by overtaking and braking or, in rare cases, by ramming a police vehicle to move. In addition to the police officers, the persecuted person, a layman, also races along and “usually covers a considerable distance at high speeds”. “This means that the risk for third parties and those affected themselves is several times higher than with normal emergency drives.” In order to reduce the risk for uninvolved road users, in certain cases, e. B. if the fugitive drives through a busy city center, the pursuit is stopped and tries to identify the perpetrator by other methods.

Situation in the USA

About 360 people die in police chases in the United States each year. In 2002, 700 car chases were reported in Los Angeles alone . In addition, some spectacular chases are recorded by news teams from the helicopter and broadcast live on television. OJ Simpson's chase became well known in 1994.

Chase drives are far more common in the US than in Europe. Los Angeles was the city with the most frequent car chases in the world in 2002 . The police vehicles there are often also equipped with a battering ram for this purpose. Here, too, attempts are made to protect bystanders, but because of the road conditions, the higher risk posed by armed criminals and an often confrontational police policy (which is also reflected, for example, in the increasingly military arming of the police with fully automatic assault rifles, massively armored vehicles, etc. ) more brutal methods are often used within cities.

In the past, serious accidents occurred again and again, in which those involved lost control of their vehicle and people were seriously injured or even killed. Since the accumulation of these incidents, chase drives, particularly in California , have become a contentious issue.

Chases in the movie

In film and television , a chase is a sequence in which one or more vehicles are chased by others. Chases are widespread in the action genre and are even the main subject of some films. They are especially popular because they deliver fast, varied and action-packed scenes without requiring a large financial outlay. Car accidents can also portray violence without harming people.

Chases were portrayed in films early on. As early as 1913, the director Franz Hofer portrayed a pursuit in his film The Black Ball and thus laid the foundation for the editing technique that is still used today .

The first modern car chase is the one in the 1968 film Bullitt , as it was much longer and faster than previous ones. In addition, camera settings were used that gave the viewer the feeling of being in the car themselves. French Connection increased the realism even further: while previous car chases took place on closed roads or country roads, the scene here was shown in the middle of normal traffic. Another milestone was The Seven-Ups , which portrayed a wild New York chase that is seen by many to be similar to Bullitt .

Since Bullitt , movie chases have become more elaborate and entertaining. Accidents play an increasingly important role and the destruction of vehicles is often expected by the spectators. An early example of such an accident can be found in the 1974 film McQ Strikes . The 1978 film Driver consists in large part of car chases. In the 1980 film comedy Blues Brothers, the title heroes were chased several times (in a 1974 Dodge Monaco ): first they flee from the police in the middle of a shopping center, then they flee from a cheated country band and from members of the American National Socialist Party . The final chase in front of the police in Chicago (later accompanied by the fire brigade, army and national guard), with numerous pile-ups, is considered one of the most impressive in film history.

The most common is probably the car chase, in which a car is chased by the police. But buses, trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles, tanks and practically every other type of vehicle were also seen in this or that film in chases. All James Bond films usually contain several detailed staged car chases.

Some TV series have car chases as a main theme, such as Knight Rider , Alarm for Cobra 11 or Airwolf .

Chases are an important element in numerous cartoons such as Tom and Jerry , Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote , Speedy Gonzales and Hase and Wolf .

Similar to shootings and brawls, car chases are a cinematic stylistic device that appears to a large extent in rather trivial and entertaining films. Nonetheless, car chases also feature in some sophisticated films.

Chases in computer games

Some computer games contain game modes that depict car chases. These include:

• Driver
• Need for speed
• Grand Theft Auto
• Enter the matrix
• Assassin's Creed

literature

• Stephan Schwentuchowski, Martin Herrnkind (ed.): Mission and pursuit drives . Police Science Publishing House, ISBN 978-3-86676-024-0 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Chase  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Video Library (Chases on cbs2.com)
• Page 19, 20 Special case in pursuit (PDF file; 394 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IPCC publishes major study on police road traffic incidents on the website of the Independent Police Complaints Commission . Retrieved June 3, 2015.
2. ↑ http://www.ccfw.ch/masterarbeit_haenggi-ohne-kapital-7.2-3.pdf
3. ↑ Newspaper article on the subject of deaths in car chases (English) accessed on June 17, 2014
4. ↑ Los Angeles urges media to curb coverage of police chases on smh.com.au. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
5. ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/27/1046064169270.html?oneclick=true
6. ↑ Police mirror 2008 ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 1.99 MB)