By Tanya Eiserer
Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — All of Dallas County’s elected law enforcement agencies appear to have similar police pursuit policies that give officers wide latitude on when they can chase fleeing motorists.
Dallas County constables have been involved in two of three police pursuits that occurred in the span of two days, including Monday’s 90-minute chase that ended in a T-bone crash in Garland.
“I definitely have some concerns,” said County Commissioner John Wiley Price. But he said there was nothing that he or any of the other commissioners could do because constables and the sheriff are elected officials who set their own policies.
Price, who recently reviewed the policies of all the county’s elected law enforcement agencies, said it appears that constables share the same basic policy because they seem to use a similar template.
County Commissioner Mike Cantrell said he doesn’t see a problem with the current policies.
“It’s my understanding that the policies are in conformity with the vast majority of law enforcement in Dallas County,” he said. “What needs to happen is that the Legislature ought to make it mandatory jail time for anybody that runs away or tries to flee.”
Constable Michael Gothard, whose officers started Monday’s 90-minute pursuit, said he is reviewing video from the incident to determine if any changes need to be made to the policy.
“Should we have called it off sooner?” Gothard said. “It’s hard to make that determination. With everything I’ve seen on TV, it looks like they followed all of the protocols.”
Gothard’s deputy constables initially began pursuing 29-year-old Shane Michel because he fled from a constable who tried to stop him for speeding. Authorities also found out during the chase that Michel was wanted on a felony forgery warrant.
Michel, who has a lengthy criminal history, was critically injured in the crash.
It also was not clear who would be liable for damage to the vehicles of motorists not involved in the chase. Those individuals could file claims with the county, but the county could also claim sovereign immunity.
All five of the constable offices and the sheriff’s department allow officers to chase fleeing motorists for any type of criminal infraction, including traffic violations.
Many other area enforcement agencies also allow officers to chase for traffic violations.
The sheriff’s department’s policy states that deputies should stop pursuing a fleeing motorist wanted on a traffic violation or some other Class C misdemeanor “when it becomes apparent that the violator will do whatever is necessary to evade the deputy.”
The Dallas Police Department, the county’s largest law enforcement agency, strictly limited police pursuits in 2006, allowing officers to chase only violent felony suspects.
Police have credited the policy with a sharp reduction in accidents, deaths and injuries. They also say they have found no evidence that criminals are more likely to flee as a result of the policy.
The constables and sheriff’s department generally have similar limitations on what their officers cannot do, including driving the wrong way down a street, ramming a fleeing vehicle to force it off the road and setting up roadblocks.
Some set limitations on how many squad cars can be directly involved in the chase.
The general consensus among elected county law enforcement agencies is that restricting when their officers could pursue would lead to a spike in lawlessness.
“The day that we make it known that we are not going to chase, more criminals are going to run from us and the likelihood of more accidents occurring is going to be higher,” Dallas County Constable Jaime Cortes.
Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminologist who studies police pursuits, said that’s a prevalent myth among officers and that research has shown that offenders are no more likely to flee after a department places restrictions on vehicle pursuits.
“Most people are fleeing for stupid reasons,” Alpert said. “Police pursuits should be limited to violent crimes.”
A day of chases in Dallas County
Authorities are investigating several chases in a 24-hour period that resulted in injuries to four people in Dallas County:
-- On Monday afternoon, Shane Michel, 29, led Dallas County constables on a 90-minute high-speed chase after he fled when officers tried to pull him over for speeding near interstates 30 and 635 in Mesquite. After winding his way through Dallas, Garland and into Richardson, his gray Nissan was struck by a pickup on Plano Road. That crash left Michel in critical condition.
-- Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jennifer Goolsby, also known as Jennifer Lynn Williams, 36, led authorities on a nearly two-hour chase from Irving to White Rock Lake. Irving police did not return calls to explain why she was stopped, but when arrested, police found she had a probation violation stemming from a cocaine-possession charge. She was chased at speeds of up to about 100 mph before her tires were spiked and her Ford Escort plodded east down the middle lane of Interstate 30 at speeds below 20 mph. She stopped near Buckner and East Lake Highlands Drive and was arrested.
-- Shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, an officer stopped a vehicle in the 3000 block of Shady Grove Road in Irving for an expired temporary tag and lack of a valid inspection sticker, police said. After the officer told the driver the vehicle would be towed, she jumped into the vehicle and fled, leaving behind her passengers. Two minutes and a mile-and-a-half later, she rear-ended a vehicle and was arrested. Three people were injured, including the fleeing driver. Their conditions and names were not released.
Copyright 2009 Dallas Morning News