Because of police chases of illegal migrants: Ministry of Interior starts training police officers to bring cars to a stop by use of spike strips
Following the surge in the cases of police chases of illegal migrants with fatal consequences, the Ministry of Interior has started to train police officers to bring cars to a stop by using metal spike strips. The first demonstration was today, November 25, in Plovdiv.
The training of police officers in the use of the metal spike strips is in response to many questions raised by cases of police officers injured and killed while trying to stop fleeing vehicles, both with criminals and illegal migrants.
It appears that law enforcement agencies are also having difficulty with the training of patrol officers and the availability of special equipment. Police currently have nearly 800 metal strips across the country for stopping vehicles. It was revealed today that more are to be purchased for all police departments in the country.
What happens to a chased vehicle when it passes through a spike strip and why is this an effective measure that the police intend to use?
In the training, at a speed of 70 - 80 km/h, the spike strip forced the front tyres of the vehicle to stop and the chased robbers were detained.
According to the director of the Plovdiv police, such an operation in a real situation could be conducted without further endangering the lives of both the law enforcement officers and the fugitives.
"Even at 120 km/h the vehicle remains in a stable condition, the extra spikes that break off and remain in the tire probably have this additional stabilizing and stopping effect," explained the director of the district office of the Ministry of Interior in Plovdiv, Senior Commissioner Vassil Kostadinov.
Currently, there are 759 strips with metal spikes available to the police across the country. More are to be purchased and distributed in the regional directorates of the Ministry of Interior.
"Absolutely every district police station will have such strips. At the moment, the available strips that the district headquarters have are in the vehicles - the patrol ones," said the Head of the Security Police at the General Directorate of the National Police, Commissioner Venelin Mladenov.
The checkpoints along the borders, as well as the patrols along Trakia motorway, where the main migrant corridor passes, will be equipped with strips to stop traffickers. Experts believe that the requirements for the police should be increased, but that the provision should also be up to par.
Additional training for police officers is currently being conducted in Plovdiv, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Pazardzhik and Kardzhali.
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