I too have wondered this after watching American police car chases. Here in the UK at any time a superior officer, often monitoring the scene, can call off the chase, and call in a helicopter (if one is available) to monitor the situation.
All officers must report how safe the chase is (cars on the road, weather conditions, pedestrians) and lying is a criminal offence. Also, officers who are part of a chase must be pursuit trained.
Here's the de facto manual all pursuit trained officers must be accustomed too:
Example of a pursuit in the UK and notice the shock tactics at the end (smashing the passenger side window, dragging him from the car, etc) this is the to confuse and disorientate the man and makes sure he doesn't have time to get a weapon or destroy evidence.
Absolutely, we've banned several Islamic fundamentalist organsations including, Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK. Both were proscribed under the UK's Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.