These things run in a cycle. There's a high profile chase or two that looks particularly dangerous, there's public outcry, and high speed chases are banned.
The criminals very quickly figure this out, and use it to their advantage by immediately driving like absolute nutters to make the police abandon the chase. There's a public outcry, and the police are once again allowed to chase criminals.
One of the best ones was helmets. The police weren't allowed to ram someone on a motorbike without a helmet, in case they injured them. So all the bag snatchers etc immediately stopped wearing helmets.