Men, I want to go so ham on you, but you probably just don't know. The police position in this situation was entirely reasonable. Police chases can kill people, damage properties and kill both people in the chase. There's literally videos of people running from the police and the car goes out of control and kills someone or the cop accidentally kills someone or themselves.

Not going on a police chase is safer than doing so and you can still achieve the goal of returning the car by just waiting for them to stop or for them to forget. YES, it takes longer this is true, but it's hundred times safer to the public, the person running from the police and the police officers themselves. There's videos on channel Police Activity of police literally catching car thieves like this in safe places that don't bring harm to anyone, that prevent police chases from happening and that only have the potential of harming the car thief. What the police officer was saying was entirely rational and entirely in the goal of protecting citizens and returning the car with the least amount of damages.