CITIZEN PREFERENCES AND PERCEPTIONS CONCERNING POLICE PURSUIT POLICIES

A sample of 450 registered voters was surveyed concerning their attitu des towards police pursuit policies and practices. Based on a 40 perce nt return rate, it was found that most police officers were thought to use good judgment in pursuit decisions; nevertheless, a slight majori ty of responders favored more restrictions on police pursuit. Most res ponders felt that such restrictions would not tempt them to elude; how ever, 21 percent either said they might elude or were not sure how the y would be affected by the restrictions on police. Concerning specific policy types, citizens were found to be only slightly more likely tha n police officers to prefer a restrictive policy. Likewise, in respons e to a traffic stop scenario, citizens were only slightly less support ive of pursuit than were the police officers in that same city. Suppor t for pursuit was found to have a slight but significant correlation w ith political conservatism.