Should criminals who flee by vehicle be shot?

[Pope Joan]

Drive-by shootings from cars never cause any collateral damage, do they? So shooting from cars must be entirely accurate and safe.

[Imperium Sidhicum]

If they were to give the cops TOWs I think neither would be a problem.

All chases should be stopped by a 120mm SABOT round.

For the former suggestion, asides from the blast wave shattering windows and spraying deadly shrapnel several hundred feet from the impact site in what is likely a highly-populated urban setting, I can clearly see no problem with that.

For the latter idea, the proper military term for that type of munition is APFSDS (Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot), sabot itself being only a part of the whole round and inaccurately used as convenient shorthand. Being designed to punch through tank armor, APFSDS would actually be pretty useless against soft targets like typical civilian vehicles unless you scored a hit square on the engine block, in which case the depleted-uranium projectile would shatter and self-ignite, contaminating the whole place with highly toxic uranium dust residue, which wouldn't exactly help your reputation with the local residents, health workers and environmentalists (Not that you really care anyway, considering your deployment of massively-overpenetrating tank-caliber munitions in a residential area).

Hence, to avoid the issue of overpenetration, I would suggest using conventional high-explosive rounds, though it brings back the problem of deadly blast and fragmentation, which people really seem to dislike in their residential areas for some reason.

So if you insist on using M1 Abrams or comparable armored vehicle fitted with a 120mm gun in stopping fleeing suspects, perhaps your best bet is the M1028 round, which is basically a shotgun shell on steroids, blasting a bucketful of ball bearings at those pesky perps on the run. Granted, it still has a way of demolishing walls and tearing through anything and anyone standing downrange for up to 700 meters, but at least the damage will be confined to within a relatively-narrow sector in front of your police tank.

[The Intergalactic Universe Corporation]

Criminals who flee by vehicle should be shot because they are escaping arrest and obstructing justice from being served.

[Cetacea]

No. Better idea: equip Police Cars with cowcatchers and ram the fleeing criminal cars in the most brutal way for maximum destruction and entertainment.

(Image)

only if he have a gimp strapped to the bonnet playing a flame spitting stratocaster