I-Team: Irving police have been involved in more than 500 chases since 2018
IRVING – For the second time this week, a North Texas police department was involved in a high-profile chase that ended with a crash.
Thursday around 2:00 a.m., four people died after a police chase in Irving led to a crash off an Interstate 35E ramp near downtown Dallas. All four people killed were in the stolen vehicle being chased, according to police.
In the past five years, according to records obtained by the CBS News Texas I-Team, Irving police officers have been involved in 515 police chases (Aug. 2018 – Aug. 2023) - an average of more than two a week.
Records also show more than one in every four Irving police chases reached or exceeded 100 mph. Police have not said what speed Thursday's chase reached.
Out of the 515 Irving police chases since 2018, only one time was an officer disciplined for failing to follow the department's pursuit policy. The officer was suspended by the department, according to police records.
Irving police pursuit policy allows officers to pursue stolen vehicles. The policy states, "Officers and supervisors involved in a vehicle pursuit are required to continuously evaluate the need to immediately apprehend the suspect against the risks created by continuing the pursuit. Vehicle pursuits are not always predictable, and decisions made pursuant to this policy shall be evaluated according to the totality of the circumstances reasonably known at the time of the pursuit."
Last fall, the Department of Justice released a report urging police departments to limit pursuits to violent crimes where the suspect poses an imminent threat.
According to the report, "Research suggests that if the police did not chase offenders, there would be no significant increase in the number of suspects who flee. Additional research suggests that agencies with more restrictive pursuit policies do not have higher crime rates."