It is tempting to believe that a lot has changed since the Rodney
             King case. In that highly televised case, police in Los Angeles stopped
             Mr. King after a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. In that case, the
             chase did not cause the problem; the actions of the officers, taped by a
             citizen after they got King out of his car, caused the problem. Still, the
             incident might be regarded as a poster child for the liability that can
             accrue to police departments, in terms of civil and even criminal
             liability, expense and community ill will when dramatic enforcement
             maneuvers, such as a high speed chase, are involved in police work.
             In the aftermath of the King case, G. Patrick Gallagher, director of
             the Institute for Liability Management in Leesburg, Va., noted that "police
             departments must have clear, constitutional, updated and consistently
             enforced policies that provide guidelines for responding to such high-risk
             tasks as the use of force and vehicular pursuits" (Howard, 1991). However,
             some commentators note that "vehicle pursuits serve a vital law enforcement
             function, with as many as 500,000 occurring each year" (June 1, 1998)
             The questions, almost fifteen years after the Rodney King event, are
             these: In general, have police departments in the U.S. responded with
             clear policies' And what, if anything, has the U.S. Supreme Court said
             concerning the issues in high-speed pursuits, excessive force and criminal
             While it may be unfortunate when miscreants are injured or killed by
             police in the performance of their jobs, it is often tragic when innocent
             bystanders are the ones in jeopardy. An editorial in the Kentucky Post in
             November, 2003, noted that approximately 40 percent of police pursuits end
             in crashes, with half of those causing injuries. Nationwide, the vehicular
             pursuit death toll is between 300 and 400 people, according to the Post,
             and about half...