Sirens and flashing lights filled the dark sky Sunday morning after yet another police chase, a pursuit that ended in a fiery crash that left two men dead in Houston. High-speed chases have been a source of controversy in recent years, but Houston Police Department was prompt in offering an explanation as to why their officer started pursuing these two men, the Houston Chronicle reports. “It was a very short pursuit lasting under two minutes and we’re very fortunate that it had no innocent citizens or officers injured in this incident,” said police spokesman Kese Smith. “But at the end of the day the suspects are responsible for their actions.”
The weekend double fatality is symptomatic of a nationwide problem: high-speed police pursuits are dangerous and sometimes fatal. Between 300 and 400 drivers, officers and innocent bystanders die every year during police pursuits. That’s roughly one person a day and one officer every six to eight weeks, according to the non-profit Pursuit Safety. “Obviously, pursuits are like police shootings in that you have policies in place to try to find a balance between when it’s appropriate and when it isn’t,” said criminologist Larry Karson of the University of Houston-Downtown. “We’re talking about the potential of deadly force because cars are considered a deadly weapon.” In this case, officers were investigating a crash around 1 a.m. in which one of the drivers fled without stopping to exchange information. Around 92 percent of police chases nationally are for non-violent crimes, according to 2008 data from the International Association of Chiefs of Police