I-Team: Fort Worth sues to keep police chase policy private
FORT WORTH- The City of Fort Worth is suing to keep its police pursuit policy hidden from the public.
Fort Worth City Council signed off on a lawsuit Tuesday night to block public records requests made by the CBS News Texas I-Team and other news organizations for the police policy.
Last fall, the Texas Attorney General's Office ruled Fort Worth Police should release the policy to the I-Team under the state's public record laws. But the city disagreed with the ruling, so it filed a lawsuit against Ken Paxton's office.
In the lawsuit, Fort Worth claims if the policy is released, "The safety of the public and of police officers could be jeopardized."
Other North Texas police departments, including Dallas police, post their pursuit policy online.
The Fort Worth police chase policy has come under scrutiny after multiple high-profile chases last summer resulted in deaths.
In July, Fort Worth Police officers were chasing a reported stolen car when officers collided with Andre Craig's vehicle, killing the 57-year-old innocent bystander.
"We are not talking about a suspect who was committing a crime. We are talking about an innocent person who was going about the business of their day, and in the process of that, he was killed," Nefertari Mundy, Craig's sister, told the I-Team in a November interview.
Craig's family has been seeking answers from the Fort Worth PD, including whether the officers followed the department's pursuit policy.
The department said the crash is still under investigation, and making its pursuit policy public could give criminals the information to elude police.
An I-Team data analysis of Fort Worth Police records last year found since 2018, 51% of the time a Fort Worth officer engaged in a pursuit, it was for a felony offense.
20% of the time, it was because a suspect fled a traffic stop. Then, the department records list "other" as a reason for 24% of their chases.
Police officials said "other" often refers to situations where a supervisor has determined a danger to the public.
A report from the Police Executive Research Forum released in September by the U.S. Department of Justice called on law enforcement agencies to only start a pursuit if a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat.
The number of people in Texas killed yearly in crashes involving a police chase has been on the rise, with more than twice as many deaths in 2021 (72 deaths) than a decade prior (34 deaths in 2011), according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.