7.3 Pursuits & Emergency Vehicle Operations

Emergency Driving Is a Risk-Management Decision

Quick Answer: Missouri officers may operate with emergency equipment when responding to true emergencies or engaging in authorized pursuits, but lights and siren never cancel physics or civil liability concepts. Every acceleration, intersection, and continuation decision must weigh public safety against the need to stop a threat. Agency policy, supervisor control, and termination criteria are as testable as the mechanics of driving.

Academy programs include Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) skills hours. The MPOLE tests the judgment layer: when to chase, when to slow, when to stop, and why “catching the car” is not always the professional win.

Policy-Driven Pursuit Decisions

A pursuit is an active attempt by an officer in an authorized emergency vehicle to apprehend a fleeing suspect who is attempting to avoid capture, typically by willful refusal to stop.

Balancing test (training model)

Need to apprehend rises with violence, weapons, and ongoing harm. Risk rises with speed, traffic density, weather, visibility, road type (urban arterial vs rural two-lane), and driver recklessness.

Missouri context examples (illustrative):

• Pursuing an armed robbery suspect from a gas station onto a lightly traveled rural route at 0300 presents a different balance than chasing a minor equipment violator through a packed Soulard event crowd.
• Interstate pursuits (I-70, I-44, I-55) introduce high closing speeds, commercial traffic, and multi-agency coordination needs.

Exam principle: Knowing the plate and driver identity for a non-violent offense often supports terminating and seeking later arrest rather than forcing a high-speed conclusion.

Emergency Lights, Siren, and Due Regard

Operating as an emergency vehicle generally requires audible and visual warning devices as specified by statute and policy when claiming emergency privileges (exact RSMo equipment wording is applied per current law and agency rules). Critical concepts:

1. Activate appropriate emergency equipment when engaging in emergency response or pursuit as policy requires.
2. Due regard / due care for public safety remains. Privileges to exceed speed limits or proceed past signals are not absolute; they depend on warning devices and safe exercise of judgment.
3. Other motorists may not yield—headphones, distraction, weather, or panic. Assume you must still be able to avoid a crash.
4. Intersections are kill zones—slow enough to see and stop; make eye contact when possible; do not blindly “blow” lights because the siren is on.

Termination Criteria & Supervisor Role

Training and most agency policies expect officers to self-terminate or obey supervisor termination when risk exceeds need.

Common termination triggers (awareness list):

• Speeds or driving behavior create unreasonable danger to the public
• Suspect identity is established and delayed apprehension is reasonable
• Environmental hazards (ice, fog, heavy rain, construction)
• Entering school zones, heavy pedestrian areas, or dense urban grids at extreme risk
• Mechanical failure, loss of radio contact, or unfamiliar extreme terrain
• Pursuit motivated primarily by anger or ego rather than public safety need
• Supervisor or pursuit manager orders the stop

Supervisor awareness (what MPOLE expects)

Even if you are not yet a sergeant, know that supervisors typically:

• Monitor radio traffic and ask for crime, speeds, traffic, weather, and location updates
• Approve continuation or order termination under policy
• Coordinate spike strips, assisting units, and air support when available
• Conduct post-pursuit review for training and accountability

Officer duty: Provide honest, complete updates. Hiding speed or conditions to keep a chase alive is unprofessional and dangerous.

PIT, Roadblocks, and Forcible Stops (Trained/Authorized Only)

Forcible intervention techniques can end pursuits—but they are high-liability, high-injury tools.

MPOLE trap: Choosing PIT or a rolling roadblock because “the guy is getting away” when you have no training authorization or when policy forbids it for that offense level. The correct academic answer is almost always follow training and policy—do not invent movie tactics.

Non-Pursuit Emergency Response (Code Response)

Not every emergency drive is a pursuit. Code response (emergency response to a call without a fleeing vehicle) still kills officers and civilians when mishandled.

Safety themes:

• Confirm the call truly requires emergency response (in-progress violence vs cold report).
• Select routes that balance speed with control—avoid known congestion when an alternate is safer overall.
• Reduce speed for intersections, hills, curves, and blind spots even when “in a hurry.”
• Night/rural responses: animals, unlit farm equipment, and gravel shoulders change stopping distances.
• Urban responses: joggers, rideshare drop-offs, and red-light runners.
• Arrive able to function—a crashed patrol car helps no victim.

Decision sequence (memory aid)

1. Is emergency response authorized and necessary?
2. Equipment on and functioning?
3. Can I navigate this segment with due regard?
4. If pursuing, does need still outweigh risk?
5. Should I terminate or request alternatives (helicopter, later arrest, perimeter)?

Missouri POST / Academy Framing

EVOC seat time builds car-control skill; classroom/knowledge expectations for licensing include:

• Legal and policy framework for emergency operation
• Risk vs benefit analysis
• Communications and supervisor integration
• Termination ethics
• Recognition that pursuits are optional tools, not obligations, when policy says no

Common test traps

• Continuing a pursuit for a minor violation through a school zone at extreme speed
• Ignoring a supervisor’s termination order
• Assuming siren use removes all duty of care
• Improvising PIT/roadblocks without authorization
• Treating every alarm or cold call as a maximum-speed code run

Professional Missouri officers win by protecting the public first. Apprehension that destroys bystanders is a mission failure—even if the suspect is “caught.”