Law enforcement chases only if known violent offender involved, report says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It's a scene you see over and over. Police chases ending in crashes, many times injuring or killing people not even involved in the chase.

The Houston Police Department recently revised their chase policy after a sharp rise in pursuits over the past few years, but some say more should be done to put the lives of people on the road over pursuing non-violent offenders.

In the last month, ABC13 has covered more than a dozen law enforcement pursuits that have ended in crashes, of which at least five were HPD chases. Now, a report by national think tank of police standards, Police Executive Research Forum, said police chases should only happen under two circumstances: if a violent crime has been committed or if the suspect possesses an imminent threat to the public.

The report addresses several police chase myths, such as if police stop chasing, everyone will flee. But the report says research out of Florida shows that when police cut back on chases there was no significant increase in people running from law enforcement. Additionally, it shows when agencies have more restrictive chase policies crime rates did not increase.

Houston Councilwoman Carolyn Evans-Shabazz has been outspoken about tightening police chase policy. She said it's not only about changing policy, but changing police culture.

"It doesn't matter what you make as a policy, it must be enforced and it must be followed. So I think that could be a problem as well because I don't know how indoctrinated the police officers have been on this," Evan-Shabazz said.

A Houston Chronicle investigation that looked at HPD chase data, found a sharp rise in chases over the past four years. They found there were more than 6,300 chases in that time. From that, 27 people died and more than 700 were injured during those pursuits.

The think tank report also digs into Harris County Sherriff Office data, showing there were 410 pursuits in 2020. Of those, only three ended up in murder charges, the rest of people were running because of minor offenses. In short, people facing less serious crimes are more likely to be the ones running. The most common charges were for DWI, stolen cars, or drug possession.

HPD's new chase policy said officers can't start chases for minor thefts, traffic violations, or misdemeanor warrants. In addition, supervisors must approve all pursuits. This is broader than the two-rule pursuit policy suggested by the think tank report.

Evans-Shabazz said the new chase policy is a start, but there is more work to do.

"You have to give things an opportunity to see if they are going to be successful, but certainly I'm looking forward to further engagement with our criminal justice, our criminal safety committee to see if there are other thing we can tweak," Evans-Shabazz said.

ABC13 reached out to HPD on Friday to try and talk with someone about this report and how it may or may not fit into the department. ABC13 was told because it's a city holiday, no one was available to talk, and we were referred back to previous comments made by the department about their chase policy.

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