SENSATION SEEKING AS A FACTOR IN POLICE PURSUIT

The Sensation Seeking Scale was administered to 69 patrol officers of a suburban police department to investigate the relationship between s ensation seeking and officers' tendencies lo engage in high-speed vehi cular pursuit. Pursuit tendencies were measured by official department al records, self-reports of previous pursuits, and responses to two hy pothetical situations. The official records and self-report measures o f pursuit were found to correlate significantly with sensation seeking . It was concluded that attention to personality differences may help supervisors implement a more predictable pursuit policy.