Year-to-date numbers from Edmonton police show a 30 per cent increase in vehicle chases involving police.
In 2016, there were 395 pursuits by July 24. To compare, there were 515 chases by July 24 this year. That’s a 30 per cent increase year-over-year.
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Police chief Rod Knecht says it’s a trend seen across Canada.
“It’s an attitudinal thing by a certain segment of society. That one per cent out there that has no regard for public safety or the law or life in general.”
Knecht said Edmonton police are very aware of public safety and officer safety. Those factors are taken into account when officers start pursuing a suspect.
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“If we’re in a situation where it’s downtown or through a schoolyard… and somebody is driving erratically and putting the community in danger or putting police in danger, we’ll back off and fight another day,” the police chief said.
“We’ll identify the individual, identify the car, get the plate and the description etc. and we’ll go after them later or… with Air 1 in the sky, we can back right off, let the helicopter follow them.
“They’ll eventually run out of gas or have to go get gas and we’ll get them that way.”
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Another benefit of the police helicopter is that often, suspects don’t even realize they’re being followed.
“It’s the best evidence too,” Knecht said. “The helicopter has a camera on it. We can just record how that individual is driving, we can follow them day or night because we have night vision.”
He said once the vehicle stops, the team in Air 1 alerts officers on the ground and the apprehension is often relatively uneventful.