The way all those non american countries do it? There is absolutely no need for destruction derby/carmageddon style driving most of the time. You got choppers following the car, you can place spike strips, you can wait untill he runs out of fuel, you can drive behind him and before him at a safe distance to make the road clear etc.
Demolition derby driving isn't practiced most of the time. I think you've been watching too many "Wildest Police Chase" shows.
Departments have escalation policies when it comes to this. The general rule is not to attempt a high-risk maneuver unless the suspect has already demonstrated behavior that is considered to be a danger if allowed to continue.
In recent years, police departments have been reevaluating which situations warrant pursuit.
Choppers: Expensive, only municipal forces with the resources and known need for them are going to have them.
Without air surveillance, the only way to track a fleeing suspect it to follow the car (presumably in a vehicle of some kind).
Waiting until he's out of gas:
Assuming you know where he is when he does.
Stop sticks:
Usually used before the police try to run a car down. Suspects have been known to continue driving with flat tires, and stop sticks are not impossible to avoid. This requires at least one other cop car to move into position, and it takes some time, since the suspect doesn't wait.
Driving a safe distance behind:
That's normally done until the stop sticks and other disabling methods fail and the offender is believed to a be a real threat if not stopped.
I certainly hope you don't think that also means the cops drive the speed limit. Since I'm sure the fleeing suspect will be driving at an unsafe speed in an attempt to escape.
Driving in back and in front:
The driving behind part is easy. Driving in front only works if it's a police escort, not a fleeing suspect.
Imagine trying to keep a lead on a speeding car through a complex road network. In the case of just a single highway with offramps, each exit is a binary choice. Being ahead of the suspect, the cop must predict what the crook will do, or there must be a cop car ahead on each path.
After 10 exits, a single cop must have made 10 correct choices, or 1024 cop cars are racing in parallel ahead.
Either we have Miss Cleo in pursuit, or everyone in the country is a cop besides the criminal (and then only up to 28 exits and all roads are 1/0 binary choices).
Since the suspect is fleeing, he's not driving slowly. That means 1024 cop cars are racing through various side streets to get into position.
I don't think that's safer, do you?
God forbid we count other directions, a cross intersection would be 4^whatever number of intersections crossed-number of intersections. Suspects have been known to try reversing direction on occassion, but we'll assume the same cop can tail him.
If that's how it's done in Canada, it's more of a post-apocolyptic wasteland than I previously thought.
No need for cowboy style driving especially since most people only start driving like absolute maniacs after some cop got on his tail with destruction derby driving.
No, I think it's because they don't want to get caught.
Actually canadians have more guns, though this doesnt happen in canada.
I think it happens on occasion.