I think backtothebeat's excellent post deserves more than a mere 'like' - the points made are extremely pertinent. W Mids was one of the forces that believed the advice (I think it was a Home Office report by a Dr Best) that pursuits were dangerous and unproductive; training and policy changed (no T-Pack, follow-only) until a couple of incidents (including one I sadly was directly involved in which led to the deaths of 2 police officers from a neighbouring force) obliged them to change their minds. As officers directly involved with the work had pointed out, in an urban area many of the vehicle crimes are associated with other offences (burglary being one of the most common) so reducing the success-rate of criminals evading capture had a wider effect on community safety. I also experienced the "waste of police time" accusation when, having completed a search in the Wilts police a/c, the police observer was told of a foot pursuit nearby involving a scrote who'd nicked a bottle of something from the Off-Licence down the road. It was on our route home to Devizes, so we spent about 6 minutes locating the miscreant and orbiting him until the bobbies made their arrest - there were 'letters to the editor' about misuse of police assets, but as b-t-t-beat pointed out the offender had history of targeting the same premises and it was a good day for the owner to see justice being served for once.