I propose “Cop Chopper Seven” – it could have KTVB’s logo on it, and Isabel Bilbao could ride shotgun giving minute-by-minute updates, both to the “authorities” and to the breathless viewing audience. (“That’s right, Carolyn. They’re getting on the connector now… I think they just threw their baby out the window…”) And of course they could divert it on Fridays for “Friday Night Flights.” (I’d tune in every week for a half-hour of small-town high-school football highlights, interspersed with bad-guy chase action highlights.)

Also strange it took so long to realize some chases create more danger than they’re worth — something that seems obvious on the face of it, too, plus all the news stories over the past 10 or 15 years about dozens of other departments that figured it out … one at a time, of course.

Still, the cops are just trying to do their jobs, but some of them do get carried away, chasing and shooting etc. when they’re more likely to clobber themselves and other people than to get the bad guys.

A copper in a chopper — as they’re called some places — could follow above the speeding bad guy without as much peril to police and passersby. Expensive per hour, but perhaps cheaper in the long run.

Ah, but who can forget the low-speed chase of O.J. by about 40 or 50 cop cars … like, maybe they thought he couldn’t see the flashing lights and hear the sirens of one or two vehicles, but might notice an entire army behind him? There’s a good reason for that kind of chase, though — TV needed something to show during an otherwise dull time. Sure hope the stations and networks paid for all the cops’ gas.

I think the telecommunications destruction isn’t so much when they pitch their own phone under the car, but when they smash the phone of their “better half” right before they attempt to strangle her in front of their child-in-common.

Honestly, it’s always good when public agencies learn from their experiences and make changes when approporiate. Masterson appears to at least care about doing it right.

I like the new rules…the high speed running is very deadly… Now lets slow down the FD supervisors too.

If one watches COPS on TV… it’s common to see them get in the way of a car that’s still moving…happy to see that go. I do think they should be able to use the car more aggressively to stop someone at an opportune time though, before they get into traffic again.

(I hope the new policy wasn’t implemented before the folks from that “Cops” teevee show came to town. How boring would THAT be?!! What? Writing tickets for “no insurance” and “intentional destruction of telecommunications devices”?) (More often than you’d think, somebody’s mugshot is on the Sheriff’s website because he apparently busted his telephone.)