High-speed chases launched by the Houston Police Department increased 47 percent over a five-year period, killing more than two dozen people and injuring hundreds more, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.
Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2022, officers
engaged in 6,303 chases. Twenty-seven people died during those pursuits, 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.
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.
During the five-year period:
- Houston police officers embarked on more chases annually than their counterparts in Los Angeles and Chicago. Police here reported more pursuits than in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin combined.
- One out of three HPD chases ended in a crash.
- HPD-launched crashes increased 57 percent.
About 85 percent of pursuits citywide started in
predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, the reports analyzed by the
Chronicle show. More than 80 percent of chase suspects were Black or Hispanic, HPD
statistics show.
To read more CLICK HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment