Tag: Police Pursuits

Why doesn’t Texas law regulate police chases? State lawmakers, experts explain

Police chases, at their worst, are deadly. They tend to damage property. They can leave communities grieving. Most states — including Texas — have no idea how many chases happen within their own state beyond how highway troopers engage.

Despite their prominence in policing and the risk they pose, there are no laws dictating how most Texas law enforcement agencies should carry out chases.

In his 12 years as a state representative, Houston Democrat Gene Wu said he hasn’t heard much discussion among his colleagues seeking to address that.

“The way I perceive it is that most cities have good policies on chases because it affects their bottom line,” Wu said. “When those chases go wrong and it kills innocent people, they pay, and they pay a lot. So, I think from my perspective — I won’t speak for everyone — but the perspective is that it seems like something that the cities would take care of themselves to protect themselves.”

KERA News spoke to Wu and other state lawmakers in Austin last month as the clock ran out to file bills in the Texas Legislature. They, along with outside experts, offered some insight into what drives the lawmaking process in Texas and whether police chases – which killed nearly 100 people in Texas in 2022 – will ever be regulated statewide.

Read more HERE

Aurora allows police to pursue stolen-car suspects despite studies exposing danger – Sentinel Colorado

Contradicting decades of national research, Aurora’s police chief has eased restrictions on when officers can chase criminal suspects, allowing for car pursuits linked to stolen vehicles and drunken-driving suspects.

“Over the past several years, the Aurora Police Department has not engaged in pursuits of stolen vehicles, despite auto theft being a felony offense,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a statement last week. “This has created a reality where offenders believe they can victimize our community with no consequence, simply fleeing from law enforcement to avoid accountability.”

Aurora police have for years allowed officers to pursue suspects who have committed or are committing a felony and considered a serious risk to public safety if they are not immediately apprehended.  Police policy has also allowed officers to pursue a suspect committing a crime involving a firearm who the officer believes poses a serious threat to the public
— Read on sentinelcolorado.com/metro/aurora-allows-police-to-pursue-stolen-car-suspects-despite-studies-exposing-danger/

LAPD Police Pursuit Analysis Report

This is the report to the Board of Commissioners. The dilemma is that if police could never pursue then all the criminals would have to do is drive away fast enough until the police have to stop. This would be for all crimes. Speeding? Don’t stop and keep driving. What will the police do? They can’t follow you. When stopped for any crime simply drove off. I know this sounds ridiculous but why would anyone stop to be arrested? Drive away and when the police stop following you go home or to a friends and then go home tomorrow or report your car stolen. There would be almost no way to make someone comply with the law.

I understand that it is dangerous to engage in vehicle pursuits but it is the threat of pursuits that makes people comply with the law.

For example look at street and bridge (the Bay Bridge) takeovers where the street or bridge is shut down to traffic and cars or motorcycles & 4 wheelers do street stunts. The police can’t pursue, the drivers are difficult to identify so arrests are rarely made. This is why in some neighborhoods these events are weekly occurrences. Police can’t pursue, no threat of apprehension, thus creating a lawless atmosphere.

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23785994/bpc_23-082-pursuit-report.pdf