Citation

Homant RJ, Kennedy DB. J. Crim. Justice 1994; 22(5): 425-435.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(94)90033-7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A sample of 450 registered voters was surveyed concerning their attitudes towards police pursuit policies and practices. Based on a 40 percent return rate, it was found that most police officers were thought to use good judgement in pursuit decisions;nevertheless, a slight majority of responders favored more restrictions on police pursuit. Most responders felt that such restrictions would not tempt them to elude; however, 21 percent either said they might elude or were not sure how they would be affected by the restrictions on police, Concerning specific policy types, citizens were found to be only slightly more likely than police officers to prefer a restrictive policy. Likewise, in response to a traffic stop scenario, citizens were only slightly less supportive of pursuit than were the police officers in that same city. Support for pursuit was found to have a slight but significant correlation with political conservatism.