Texas No Chase Law: Fact or Fiction?
The myth persists that a "no chase law" exists in Texas. A Google search for such a law yields some interesting, albeit false, information. There are no statutes, ordinances, or Texas Transportation Code sections with which I am familiar or have been able to find prohibiting the police from chasing any vehicle in Texas. The Texas Transportation Code does limit "exigent circumstances" for running from pursuing law enforcement officers, to wit: Here is a link to the actual Texas Transportation Code Section 545.421 – Fleeing or Attempting to Elude Police Officer . The above describes an offense, but it does not prohibit or limit "chasing" by law enforcement officers. It merely defines what is an offense. For police officers who practice protective or preventive policing, there is a Department of Justice briefing paper available at: 2003-03-12-victimwitnessguidelines.pdf which provides guidance on decision making and officer safety when chasing vehicles. This is the same type of guidance the State of Florida provides for law enforcement. I can tell you from experience that there is a strict use of force continuum for police officers in the state of Texas, as well as the rest of the United States.
The Purpose of No Chase Policies
The motivation behind the implementation of "no chase" policies in law enforcement is primarily concerned with safety. It may seem counterintuitive to those on the outside, but these policies which seem to limit police response often exist to protect lives. It is well-established that high-speed car chases pose a significant risk to both law enforcement personnel and civilians, placing pedestrians and motorists who happen to be in the vicinity of the pursuit in danger of being hurt in a serious accident.
By most estimates, approximately one innocent passerby is killed in a police pursuit for every fifteen individuals who are killed in a collision with a fleeing vehicle or who die as the result of a police pursuit.
"Pursuit-related fatalities," – in other words, injuries or deaths that occur as a result of a police chase – accounted for nearly 300 deaths in 2017 alone, according to the most recent data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The report demonstrated that 102 of these fatalities involved bystanders, 99 by police officers involved in the chase, 41 in the vehicle being chased, 39 who were being chased and 19 in unrelated vehicles.
Even if the injuries are less severe, the risks associated with high-speed police pursuits are abundant enough that many policies have been put in place to minimize them. It is no coincidence that many police departments in the United States have responded to nationwide calls for an increased emphasis on officer conduct with the institution of such policies, as they can decrease the potential avenues through which poor policing can lead to unnecessary harm to the community.
"Roughly 90% of the deaths resulting from police pursuits each year are the fault of the person being pursued," noted the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan in a statement on their website about Michigan’s no-pursuit policy.
"It is a fact of life in America that crime will occur," the organization continued, "and that criminals will resist arrest and try to flee when they are apprehended. The question is whether the penalty for those actions will be death. We believe that no attempt to evade arrest should carry a ‘death penalty,’ and that this is especially the case if the offense is minor.
"When so much is at stake — when a life is on the line — police should not engage in a game of chance," the ACLU added. "Everyone knows that there are no guarantees. The question is how much you want to gamble — your life, your loved one’s life, the life of the officer in pursuit, or the lives of innocent bystanders?"
Ultimately, this is the root of no pursuit policies. Keeping individuals alive and reducing the rate of liability associated with a police response to a dangerous situation are the primary concerns of law enforcement officials.
Texas Police Pursuit Laws
The issue of police pursuit is covered under Texas law with the following statute:
Sec. 546.001. AUTHORITY OF PEACE OFFICER: A peace officer may:
(1) in accordance with Chapter 546, Transportation Code:
(A) give a visual or audible signal by appropriate lights and sirens to a vehicle operated by a person traveling in violation of law;
(B) pursue an actual or suspected violator of the law who does not stop in compliance with the signal; and
(C) arrest the actor if a violation is committed in the officer’s presence or view or immediately thereafter; or
(2) while on duty:
(A) pursue a person who has committed a felony, including:
(i) a crime involving physical violence; or
(ii) a crime involving substantial damage to property.
B. In this section, "physical violence" means an offense in which there is substantial risk that a person will suffer bodily injury or death.
Effects on Community and Police
The implementation of no chase policies or restrictions in Texas has a broad and significant impact on both communities and law enforcement operations. On one hand, proponents argue that these policies protect public safety. Without the risk of high-speed chases, civilians are less likely to be harmed in accidents caused by fleeing suspects and police officers are less likely to incur injuries, or worse, fatalities.
On the other hand, opponents of these policies contend that no chase policies promote criminal activity. If criminals know that police are prohibited from chasing them, they may feel emboldened to commit even more serious crimes – often using the threat of speed-related danger to intimidate victims or witnesses. Crime deterrence may diminish as a result.
From the law enforcement perspective, an officer’s safety is vital. Police departments and sheriff’s offices have a vested interest in ensuring their as many officers as possible are safe while on the job. Violent confrontations are problematic enough, and often prove fatal. Officers are also at risk for accidents, with many injured and killed each year.
The physical and emotional toll on officers can be substantial as well. Surviving officers may be haunted by the memory of a close call or the death of a partner. Their families may live in fear of the possibility that they will one day receive a knock on the door with troubling news. Departments invest money in trauma protocols and support services for police and their families. As such, departments must balance the negative impact of potential accidents or injuries against the need to keep streets and citizens safe.
The impact of no chase policies and restrictions on the community and law enforcement is mixed. While they lend some measure of safety to civilians and officers, they also raise a host of competing interests that must be considered.
Controversies and Arguments
Despite their implementation, no chase laws and no chase policies remain controversial. Law enforcement advocates argue that such laws and policies limit officers’ abilities to make arrests, and ultimately fail to prevent injuries. They also contend that some no chase laws and policies exist in jurisdictions where crime is scarce, and thus hold little value to the overall population. Conversely, some law enforcement officers agree with anti-chase advocates that pursuing suspects over small infractions encourages officers to put themselves, innocent third parties, and even suspects themselves in potentially dangerous situations. And the debate continues. For its part, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cites several studies in support of no chase laws and policies , and has compiled a list of what it sees as no chase jurisdictions. Most of these jurisdictions are large cities, like Dallas, or tiny towns, like New Athens, Ohio. Others stand somewhere in between, and apply a no chase policy (like the one in Kansas City, Missouri) or a no chase law (like the one enacted in Austin, Texas) only to certain kinds of infractions. Proponents of the stricter no chase laws believe that a dark side exists for those jurisdictions not listed by the NHTSA, and for those jurisdictions lacking no chase laws and policies altogether. Many Americans believe that police officers should police their own, but excessive caution could reduce apprehension and increase the risk to society as a whole.
Texas in Comparison to Other States
Once again, Texas is at the top of the pack in a list that no one wants to be part of. This time it is another Booze Allen Hamilton report that says Texas leads the nation in deaths resulting from police chases.
But hold on. The Law Offices of Jason Wright focus solely on representing victims of motor vehicle accidents, and have seldom seen evidence that they are the result of high-speed chases. Rather, we mostly see people who cut people off, cause accidents, and then leave the scene of the accident without so much as a thought to the people hurt as a result of their actions. That happens every day in every city and isn’t the result of the bad "no chase" laws of Texas.
Comparing to other states, many states do not have any laws regulating police chases. Instead, they defer to the policies of police agencies. The most common policy for states without laws is that the onus is on the police to decide whether a chase is warranted or not. Doing a state-by-state analysis of all 50 states returns mixed results on what the so-called "chase policies" entail.
States with policies that are purely anecdotal rather than law based include:
States with comprehensive policies, established under law, are:
As we can see, most states have some sort of policy in place, yet the results still reveal no clear-cut answer about what the safest approach is in this scenario. There is no evidence that those states with more favorable statutory laws are safer than those who defer to the Police Chief’s discretion. In fact, by the numbers, Texas is second to New Mexico in deaths resulting from police chases. This ranking leaves Texas looking like an outlier, but there are other indications that focus attention on other aspects of the chase issue.
For example, there is no known or published database that reveals how many chases there are in a given state versus the amount of car accidents that occur. While 59 percent of Texas police pursuits involve violent felonies, only less than 50 percent of California police pursuits involve violent felonies.
Determining how many accidents occur as a result of police chases requires hours of research and interviews, and varies depending on municipality and police department. Often, police agencies do not keep records or statistics on police chases. In many cases, police reviews of chases occur weeks or even months after the incident, so by then figures are not even close to accurate.
The only real conclusion that can be drawn from a comparative analysis of police chase laws in other states is that police chases in other states do not seem to necessarily result in fewer deaths as a result of police activity. Further, the data shows that disparate laws and policies do not have a singular precipitating factor in whether or not a fatality occurs as a result of a police pursuit.
Texas is not alone in its disregard for the public safety while chasing a suspect down, and until the state legislature, or even the United States Congress, takes action to enact tough laws governing police chases, we are all left to the mercy of rogue conduct that too often ends in a vacant chair at the dinner table.
The Evolution of Chase Policies in Texas
As new technologies and law enforcement tactics continue to be developed, chase policies in Texas may need to be adjusted. Nevertheless, there is no indication that such changes are on the immediate horizon. Some government officials believe that allowing officers to immediately pursue fleeing suspects will make our streets safer. However, many other groups hope to alter or ban car chases altogether . In particular, some mayors in Texas have expressed concerns over the risk of injury to officers, innocent bystanders, and other vehicle operators, as well as the expense that accompanies high-speed motorcycle or auto crashes. Given that dangers are often unpredictable in these situations, the only way to get a clear sense of the effect that chase policy changes would have may be to study statistics from other large cities in the U.S. in which legislation governs police pursuit policies while in Texas such conduct is guided by internal Department policy.