Vehicular pursuit policies vary throughout Valley

HARLINGEN — Engaging in a vehicular pursuit is one of the most dangerous procedures a law enforcement officer can be involved in, some officials say. However, policies are in place in an effort to minimize the danger and ultimately save lives, they say.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said a high-speed vehicular pursuit is more dangerous than a gunfight because a chase puts more people in danger.

“The last thing (deputies) want to do is to put the public in peril during a chase,” he said.

Police pursuit policies at the Texas Department of Public Safety, Brownsville Police Department and Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office all emphasize a common main concern: the safety of the public, the officers, the person evading arrest and property.

The Harlingen Police Department also has a pursuit policy, but officials have refused to release it.

The Valley Morning Star requested the policy after a March 24 Harlingen police pursuit that ended when a drug suspect crashed his truck into a car, police said, killing a 44-year-old Harlingen woman who was a passenger in the car.

Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said information regarding his department’s pursuit policy is not exactly public information. He said that if he released the full details of the policy, criminals might use the information to evade arrest.
  However, Lucio said, all of his patrol officers know the policy and that public safety is the main concern.

Sgt. Byron Fausset of the Hempstead Police Department teaches a pursuit class in his department and taught a course on the subject in Hidalgo County last year. He said he has learned that some agencies don’t have a pursuit policy in place, while others follow a wide range of rules.

“Some (departments) will follow a suspect until their wheels fall off, and others don’t engage in a pursuit at all,” Fausset said.

Pursuit policies of DPS, Brownsville police and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office have similar provisions: every officer engaging in a pursuit must examine existing traffic and weather conditions, consider the crime being committed and consider whether a pursuit will endanger the lives of the public, the officer, the evader and property. All three agencies require that the pursuing officer must immediately notify communications center personnel that a pursuit is under way and provide constant updates to their supervisors about the pursuit.

However, since the state of Texas doesn’t have a uniform policy for all local law enforcement agencies, some agencies don’t have pursuit policies in place, and others have policies that are different in some ways, officials said.

For example, DPS pursuing officers are the only ones who can call off a pursuit, unlike Brownsville and Hidalgo County, where supervisors following the details of the pursuit may give the order to call off a pursuit.

Trevino said his department’s pursuit policy is among the most restrictive in Texas.

He said pursuing officers cannot always properly judge the pursuit and compared the situation to a quarterback calling his own plays, hence the policy on supervisors making a call on whether to terminate a pursuit.

It’s something that Trevino calls “tunnel vision.”

Fausset said he didn’t know if there is such a thing as a safe pursuit, but he said every possible precaution must be taken to ensure the safety of those involved.

John Phillips, founder of Pursuitwatch.org and an advocate nationwide of safer pursuit policies, said he knows all too well of the dangers in police pursuits. In 2001, Phillips said, his sister was killed in a vehicle when police were pursuing another vehicle.

Phillips said that with the help of his website, he helped rewrite some of the pursuit polices in central Florida.

Phillips said he believes that that many pursuit policies change to be more restrictive only after the death of innocent bystanders.

Fausset’s pursuit policy workshop is designed to anticipate rather than react.

The four-hour class is a product of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The course examines U.S. Supreme Court decisions and state-specific statues that have impacted and governed pursuit operations. It also aims to assist departments in developing an “action” for their agency that supports vehicular pursuit operations that are consistent with the guidelines issued by IACP.

Fausett said that if the attending agency has a pursuit policy, it can compare it with others, and if it doesn’t, the class can help it come up with one.

Trevino said all agencies should have and follow a restrictive pursuit policy for the safety of all those involved in the pursuit.