Houston High-Speed Chases Spur Promises of Policy Change

High-speed chases by the Houston Police Department increased 47% over five years, killing more than two dozen people and injuring hundreds more, the Houston Chronicle reports. To document the toll high-speed chases are taking citywide, the Chronicle analyzed more than 5,000 post-pursuit forms filled out by officers, filed a dozen-plus public information requests and spoke to family members of bystanders who were killed. Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2022, officers engaged in 6,303 chases in which 27 people died and at least 740 people were injured. At least 240 of the dead and injured were bystanders, including a man who’d just left a grocery store, a man walking to get a haircut and a Lyft driver with a passenger in his car. After the Chronicle shared its findings with the department, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner responded with a clear message: Changes to HPD’s policy are coming. The chief would not detail his planned changes, as they have not been finalized. “You will see in the near future, there will be some enhancements to our pursuit policy,” Finner said on Friday. Finner attributes at least some of the increase in pursuits to a backlog of court cases caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of those who might be waiting for trial behind bars are now free on bond. The investigation found that Houston police officers embarked on more chases annually than their counterparts in Los Angeles and Chicago. Houston police reported more pursuits than in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin combined. It also revealed that one out of three HPD chases ended in a crash. About 85% of pursuits citywide started in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. More than 80% of chase suspects were Black or Hispanic, HPD statistics show.