The El Paso County Attorney’s Office has raised an alarm over the Texas Department of Public Safety's (DPS) high-speed chases, citing them as a daily threat to the safety of residents, as a report presented to the Commissioners Court showed that DPS troopers have been engaging in nearly daily pursuits through the area, often targeting suspected migrant smugglers, according to El Paso Matters.
El Paso County officials have labeled these chases as an "ongoing, pressing danger" to the community, and findings from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) were cited saying that approximately 75% of offenders indicated they would decelerate if law enforcement disengaged from pursuits, suggesting a potential decrease in risk should policies change, as reported by KVIA.
In response to increasing concerns, the County has presented various recommendations aimed at reducing the incidences and risks of these pursuits, which include measures such as seeking alternatives to high-speed chases, requiring supervisor approval before a pursuit is initiated, banning certain risky immobilization techniques, mandating the completion of incident reports, and the creation of a public reporting system for such events, as detailed by KFOX-TV.
As noted by KFOX-TV, Commissioner David Stout has pointed to state authorities for this rise in hazardous enforcement tactics by noting "It’s even more dangerous when you have the authorities that are supposed to be making the community safer, not so," as he commented on the troubling spike in vehicular pursuits in El Paso County, which soared to 399 in 2023 from just 55 in 2022, underscoring a stark increase that calls the efficacy and safety of these operations into question and propelling the push for policy review and reform, following the example set by Customs and Border Protection, which revised its pursuit policy in May 2023 in line with Department of Justice guidelines after similar safety concerns arose from Border Patrol chases.
