Legitimate requests for scheduled police escort services include, but are not necessarily limited to, those associated with motorcades and other traffic or public officials and dignitaries. All such requests must have command-level review and approval before they will be honored. When the department elects to honor a request for scheduled escort service, the trip route will be established in advance, as will the maximum speed to be maintained along each segment of the route.
Point traffic control will be established, as appropriate, at locations along the scheduled route, sufficient to ensure safe passage. Tactical control of the escort will be assigned to a specific commander, supervisor or officer, in accordance with the complexity of the escort services being provided. The tactical controller will set the pace of the escort in accordance with prevailing conditions, and under no circumstance exceeding the pre-specified maximum speed for any segment of the route.
The use of police vehicle emergency equipment during the escort will be specified in advance by appropriate supervisory or command personnel. Legitimate requests for unscheduled emergency police escort services are extremely rare. Typically, these are limited to relatively short duration escorts of emergency vehicles engaged in legitimate emergency operations. Even then there would have to be specific compelling reasons to justify escorted travel over the unescorted movement of the emergency vehicle, with its own warning devices activated.
Emergency escort of private vehicles is to be avoided whenever possible. The preferable alternatives are to arrange the transfer of persons from the private vehicle into an appropriate emergency vehicle or into the police vehicle if conditions warrant. If in the opinion of the officer it is impossible or impractical to arrange the transfer of persons from a private vehicle requesting escort, and if a passenger in said vehicle appears to be in an immediate life-threatening situation, the officer may, with specific approval of a supervisor, initiate escort of the private vehicle.
Regardless of the extent of the threat to the persons receiving emergency escort, no emergency escort will be conducted at a speed in excess of the posted limit. Officers conducting emergency escort services shall activate the patrol vehicles emergency equipment; however, they shall not proceed through traffic control devices without first stopping and ensuring that both vehicles can safely proceed.
