A look inside police pursuit decisions with a criminologist
DALLAS — Dash camera video has been released by the Irving Police Department, after 4 passengers in a stolen car fell off a bridge during a police chase early Thursday morning.
Police say the chase started as a traffic stop, and that's when officers discovered the suspect's vehicle was stolen. The driver then sped off from the officers.
"The officer is required to analyze many things in the whole five-second span of time that the officer has to engage in a pursuit or not," says criminologist, Dr. Alex Del Carmen. He says many factors go into an officer's decision to pursue a suspect.
"The officer must ask the biggest question --- 'is the individual a threat to society? Is that person going to cause more death or hurt someone?'" Del Carmen explains to CBS News Texas.
Del Carmen adds that a driver merely "fleeing" is not a good reason to chase the suspect. However, if the suspect is driving erratically, is intoxicated, or has a criminal history – those would be more sufficient reasons.
"We don't know if the officer knew that the suspect was a felon, or if the officer knew that the individual was part of a larger operation. Unfortunately, those are easy questions for very difficult answers," Del Carmen adds.
The video shows officers pursuing the suspect driver south on I-35 in Downtown Dallas. The suspect takes the ramp from I-35 onto Woodall Rogers Freeway. That's when the suspect loses control and falls off the bridge.
This incident occurred on the heels of another police chase in Fort Worth on January 27th. Two pedestrians were hurt in that chase and the suspect was arrested. The Fort Worth Police Department is currently fighting the state to not release their pursuit police.
However, other cities, including Irving, do release their pursuit policy to the public.
Del Carmen says these incidents will open up more conversations on chases in the future.
"It's inevitable. It is going to happen, especially here in the state of Texas," says Del Carmen.
He also adds, that though police pursuits happen often, nationwide data shows that most of them don't end in death.
The Irving Police Department has yet to identify the four suspects who died.