Fort Worth PD releases some details of its chase policy
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Fort Worth Police Department released part of its policy on high-speed chases.
The department had said it would not make that public in the wake of a high-speed chase that injured two pedestrians in the busy West 7th Entertainment District last month.
But on Monday, Chief Neil Noakes said he wanted to be more transparent on the issue.
"I stand by the decision to not inform criminals of our strategies. That said, I wholeheartedly believe in being transparent to our community who will now be more educated and aware of our policy and how it applies in various situations," said Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes. "Having a clear policy is important and procedures must be followed, however, let’s be clear that the culpability and responsibility lies with the individual who chose to evade."
The decision comes after the city refused to make the policy public for months.
A Jan. 23 council vote approved a legal maneuver to keep the policy confidential.
Chief Noakes says the limited release keeps private, sensitive information that would compromise officers' safety and their ability to apprehend offenders.
On Jan. 27, a suspected drunken driver hit another car and two pedestrians while trying to get away from Fort Worth officers.
The driver, identified as Andrew Michael Guerra, took off going nearly 75 miles per hour through the busy West 7th Entertainment District. Along the way, he struck curbs and just missed other vehicles.
Fort Worth police chase video shows suspected drunken driver hit car, 2 pedestrians
29-year-old Andrew Michael Guerra is accused of hitting another vehicle and 2 pedestrians while trying to drive away from police.
Guerra blew out his tires with his erratic driving, but that didn’t stop him. He continued driving on his rims through the intersection of University and West 7th streets where he hit a car and two people who were crossing the street.
The man and woman were taken to hospitals with serious injuries.
Police were able to arrest Guerra, who lives in Grand Prairie, after the crash.
According to Fort Worth PD’s newly released policy, officers must determine if a chase is too risky to other people, including considering pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area, and determine whether they think a fleeing suspect can be caught before initiating a chase.
Only marked police vehicles are allowed to chase a suspect, and those vehicles must have their lights and sirens on at all times.
And, a supervisor or the officer leading the chase can call it off if they believe the risks associated with continuing the chase are greater than the benefit of making an immediate arrest.
The department, for obvious reasons, is still not sharing specific tactics such as how and when to use tire deflation devices like spike strips, and when it may get support from a police helicopter.
With regard for the department's effort to balance transparency and what it calls sensitive information, Chief Noakes responded to FOX 4 saying, ""We don’t need to need to tell suspects exactly what they need to do to escape our officers [...] By balancing the public’s right to know with overall safety we can create a safer more informed community."