Not surprisingly, the Chron continues to support Mayor Bill White and HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, while Houston’s murder rate continues its ascent to Pluto. This time, that support comes in the form of an editorial backing the department’s new chase policy:
Which makes more sense: Should a police patrol officer chase after a minor traffic law offender who won’t pull over, thus endangering the officer’s and the public’s safety? Or should he note the license plate number, secure an arrest warrant and simply wait for the offender to come home?
Give me a break. When someone runs from a cop in a traffic stop, the cop’s thought probably isn’t “should I risk chasing this guy?”
His thought is, “What else did this guy do? What will he do if he gets away?”
The editors of the Chronicle engage in the fallacy of false alternatives, suggesting that there are only two courses of action:
- Chase the guy through a parade of Girl Scouts and puppies, culminating in a “Blues Brothers”-style crash, or
- Arrest the bad guy later that afternoon without incident.
Here in the real world, those aren’t the only alternatives. Technology and tactics can end chases quickly. Devices like the Stop Stick allow officers to deflate a suspect’s tires without a dangerous blowout. On open roads, the PIT maneuver can cause the suspect to spin out, allowing officers to snag the scumbag.
Or, if you don’t chase, all sorts of things can go wrong. The write-the-license-plate-number strategy tends to backfire when the perp is driving a stolen car. The bad guy can decide to keep running, possibly committing other crimes to further his escape. Or he can get away altogether, free to commit more crimes in the future. Back to the Chron:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt last week decided that the latter course makes eminent good sense. He ordered his officers to refrain from chasing minor offenders who do not constitute a clear and present danger to the public.
Statistics back up the chief’s decision. In 2005 HPD officers engaged in 676 chases, which injured 79 people, including 14 innocent bystanders. This year two bystanders, one a 12-year-old boy, were killed during high-speed chases.
Those statistics are completely meaningless, because they only present one side of the results, while completely ignoring the flip side. Using that sort of logic, I can make the case for banning anything. Forget the fact that millions of people enjoy swimming pools safely; 300 kids under 5 years old drown every year!
It’s interesting to look at what the Chronicle didn’t tell us. The paper didn’t note how many violent criminals were caught in chases. We don’t hear about the volume of drugs or weapons seized. We don’t hear about the number of stolen cars and other property recovered. Instead, the Chronicle focuses on the 2 percent of situations in which an innocent bystander was injured.
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15 Responses to “Chron uses meaningless stats to back chase policy”Search
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Of course, that’s the way the libs work. On “Feelings”.
Just when you think that they can’t get any dumber.
Why don’t we give all the cops white gloves? This will enable the bad guys speeding away from the crime scene to see the cops waving good-bye so much easier.
When a minor traffic offender runs from the police, doesn’t the situation instantly become a more serious offense (felony) and Ok for the police to make/continue the pursuit?
Any legal eagles out there have any information?
The problem, and I am not too confident that White/Hurtt aren’t too stupid to know this, is that people don’t generally run just to avoid a ticket - they run because they’re drunk and don’t want to go to jail, or the car is stolen, or contraband of some sort is in the car, or they just got finished knocking over the Stop-and-Rob down the street, or there’s a body in the trunk or something like that.
If all of us OBS™ (opinionated bloggers syndrome) sufferers know this, what’s wrong with the people who should know?
Oh, and by the way, Matt and others are right. These people who run aren’t going to go straight home and wait for the cops to come and serve their arrest warrant. In all likelihood, the driver of the car wasn’t even the owner.
The Police Chief’s family lives in Phoneix, Arizona no wonder he doesn’t care what happens in Houston.
Hurtt has been the police chief in three cities and has implemented this policy in every one of them. Mayor “No-hair” White knew what he was getting and knew what was coming.
jimb: Good analogy. Great common sense. Too bad it’s sorely lacking where it needs to be.
Maybe Mayor White asked for this to be instituted because of his daughter’s arrest for DUI. If this was in place, then she could have simply run from the cops and then if they came to arrest her, her 2-laywer parental unit could have figured out a way to get her out of it (can you prove she was driving the car?, etc.). Bet he is now telling her to take off next time (but she better make sure it is HPD, not the SO or DPS before this happens)!
Gee, I didn’t think anyone still read the Houston Comical.
# 9 - gotta have something to make fun of!
As far as this no chase policy - what now we have chicken dookey cops to chicken to give chase - or is it only the top cop who is such a chicken dookey!
It’s probably the top cop…
Breaking news: To chase or not to chase…that is the question.
The Houston Police Department’s chase policy has changed again. Days after the police chief announced that chasing suspects would be limited, Mayor Bill White on Monday announced that the city needs to take a step back. The mayor said he fully supports the chief and his autonomy. He also said he believes Chief Hurtt should be able to make his own policy but in this case, he believes the chief should have come to both his office and City Council.
There’s no timeline for when the chief will present the new policy to officials, so for now, the policy is back on.
Malcolm
#12
Do you have a link for that? I could not find it at the Comical.
I think this is funny:
Interpretation of what White said: You should have asked me first, Chief Hurtt, before you issued this really stupid policy.
#13 Neo:
Check out KHOU.com
Malcolm
#14
I should have known the Comical would never report this.