Organizational Variations in Vehicle Pursuits by Police: The Impact of Policy on Practice

• NCJ Number: 155473
• Journal: Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1992) Pages: 311-333
• Author(s): L E Wells; D N Falcone
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 23 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: American Automobile Assoc Foundation for Traffic Safety
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Earlier version of paper presented at meetings of the American Society of Criminology, 1991, San Francisco

Annotation

Research during the past decade has documented the number and patterns of vehicle pursuits by police officers; drawing on this research base, the authors shift the focus away from vehicle pursuits as isolated individual events to study them in the organizational context of police departments.

Abstract

Positing that the structure and environment of police organizations constrain police officer activities through intervening effects of police department policies, the authors examined variations in vehicle pursuit policies across a sample of 51 Illinois police departments. The sample included 30 municipal and 14 county police departments, 6 university police agencies, and the Illinois State Police. Questionnaires were mailed to each police agency to elicit information on vehicle pursuit policies and organizational characteristics. Results demonstrated substantial variations in vehicle pursuit policies and practices across police agencies and showed that organizational features were significantly related to vehicle pursuit policies and to police officer pursuit behavior. Vehicle pursuit policies tended to be more formalized and more restrictive in large police departments that had more elaborately developed structures. Formal written policies containing more explicit and extensive restrictions on vehicle pursuit behavior tended to occur in police departments with taller rank structures and stronger adherence to a paramilitary hierarchy. Organizational features and policy variables had an apparent effect on vehicle pursuit practices. Vehicle pursuits occurred more frequently in smaller, less formalized police departments. Vehicle pursuits were also more common in police departments with less explicitly developed policies and which viewed themselves as oriented primarily toward crime fighting rather than community service. The lack of specific vehicle pursuit training was striking. 35 references, 3 notes, and 5 tables