What it's like behind the wheel during a police pursuit in Wiltshire
Roads Policing Officers are specially trained to bring suspects to a safe stop
A Wiltshire roads policing officer is taking us behind the wheel during the high-speed pursuit of a suspect.
PC Ben Greening was at the wheel when Nathan Law, 42, from Semington was apprehended following a chase through Melksham on 7th May 2025.
Law drove at high-speed, performed dangerous overtaking manoeuvrers, drove the wrong way around roundabouts and head on into the path of pedestrians.
He was jailed for a year a week later.
PC Greening told us that he relies on his training to stay calm despite the intensity of a pursuit.
"Although emotions do get heightened from our normal patrol status mentality and to quickly moving into a dynamic situation such as the pursuit, this is where our training, ability to communicate and react under these pressure environments does kick in," he said.
PC Greening said his training, which takes six weeks, stands him in good stead to deal with the unpredictability of chasing a suspect on the roads.
He told us there's a lot happening in the car during the pursuit: "We're constantly doing what we call dynamic risk assessments and we have to feed that information back to the control room whilst we make those risk assessments.
"We're doing all of that while still driving and coordinating units to us, so then we can then formulate our tactics and bring it to a stop."
Managing the risk
Safety is always the top priority during a pursuit, with the dynamic risk assessments giving officers the option of aborting if the risks become too high.
PC Greening says they're constantly weighing up the risk of danger to the public, themselves and the driver they're pursuing.
He said: "Any pursuit, there's always going to be an element of risk, we'll never be able to remove it all whilst we're pursuing the vehicle until we've brought it to a safe conclusion.
"However, as part of the training we do receive, there's always focus on being the safest we can be and looking to minimise as much risk as possible to everyone involved and not directly involved as well."
He added that officers will always attempt to stop a car before initiating a pursuit, although in the Nathan Law case, the driver spotted the officers and made off immediately, triggering the chase.
He said officers will have the blue lights and sirens on, while also placing themselves in a place where they can be seen by other road users to allow everyone to make the safest choice possible.
And while we're told pursuits like the one that led to the arrest of Nathan Law do happen on occasions, we're told they're rare and not considered an ongoing issue in the county.