I don't know if you'd call it a Guilty Pleasure or what but I'm kinda fascinated with these police chases that periodically interrupt normal TV broadcasts. I've always had an interest in those very rare moments on television when the producers and/or stars have absolutely no idea what is about to happen. When I first got interested in talk shows and game shows, one sometimes saw such moments…but no more. Craig Ferguson is probably the least-scripted of the current talk show hosts and the chance of something unexpected occurring on one of his programs is still in the low single-digits. And of course, no producer of any so-called Reality Show has ever been really unprepared for anything that transpired on his or her program.
But live news events do create that possibility. And when someone makes the decision to cut to a live in-progress chase, they generally don't know if the climax is going to be exciting or mundane…and if it's going to come in two minutes or two hours. A few days ago here, we discussed how the 11 PM news on KNBC Channel 4 here in L.A. made what turned out to be a wrong guess on one chase. They promised viewers they'd stay with the story until its conclusion but stuck with it way too long before reneging.
If I were a News Director and I had to decide on someone to hire for an anchor position today, I think I'd give each applicant this test: I'd make them cover a 45-minute high-speed chase and dock them points for each time they babbled, each time they said, "He's driving with no regard for the safety of others," each time they passed off utter speculation as worthwhile info and, of course, each time they said something outright silly. Not long ago, I heard one reporter say, "Police have confirmed at least one driver in the fleeing vehicle." Good to know those "driverless" cars aren't running amok…yet.
The other interesting aspect is to wonder just what, if anything, is going on in the mind of that fleeing suspect. He (a He is always presumed at first, not always the case) knows there are cops right behind and that the cops can spell each other and increase in volume. He probably knows there's a helicopter above tracking them. He may even know the low, low rate of people getting away in these situations and that running racks up the charges and potential incarceration time, plus there's that strong possibility of a major accident involving injury or a pretty painful, messy death.
So why run? Well, I'm guessing that in some cases, they aren't thinking at all. No real thought process is involved. We often have a tendency to try and find a rational motive in the mind of someone who has committed an irrational act.
In some cases, I'm guessing the suspects flee just out of blind desperation. They'd rather take that less-than-1% chance they'll get away than get locked up as that will in some way, effectively end life as they know it. There are those who are out to commit suicide by making the police shoot them.
But I'm wondering how many think, "Look, Ma! I'm on TV!" It must be for some a kind of a momentary feeling of importance and power — maybe the last they'll ever have. Has anyone ever done a study that would suggest some of these guys might not lead cops on these long, disruptive high-speed chases if we didn't break into TV programming with them and treat what they're doing as more important than anything else going on in the world?
Anyway, here's what may be my favorite sorta-recent car chase video…
And here's a great runner-up…