Texas Rangers & State troopers are allowed to fire on vehicles during pursuits.
Houston, TX - For years in Texas, state troopers have been safely bringing vehicle chases to an end by using their weapons. Suspects wanted for burglaries and other crimes who have led the police on chases through multiple counties have been apprehended after state troopers pulled up close enough to shoot the tires. In one case here, a state trooper waved his pistol at a kidnapping suspect as a warning to pull over, and then shot the pickup truck’s two left tires.
But the practice has also led to fatal errors.
In August 1984, Zachary Eugene Hilliard, 17, was a passenger in a car that fled the police near Austin. A state trooper fired three rounds to shoot out the tires, but one of the shots struck Mr. Hilliard in the head, killing him. His relatives sued the agency that oversees state troopers, the Department of Public Safety, and the state later paid the family nearly $51,000. According to The Austin American-Statesman, James Adams, the director of the agency at the time, said in court documents that the trooper was in compliance with policies governing the use of deadly force.
Last month, it happened again, after a Department of Public Safety helicopter began pursuing a red pickup truck suspected of carrying drugs near the border in South Texas. A tactical flight officer on board the helicopter fired multiple times into the vehicle in an attempt to shoot the tires. He shot one of the tires, but his other shots struck a group of illegal immigrants from Guatemala who had been hiding in the bed of the truck under a dark blanket, the authorities said. Two men in the back of truck were killed, and a third was injured. No drugs were found in the truck, and no shots were fired from the vehicle.
The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting, and officials with the Department of Public Safety, the state’s top law enforcement agency, have requested that the F.B.I. and the civil rights division of the Department of Justice conduct their own investigation. The request for a federal inquiry pleased the A.C.L.U. of Texas, which called the shooting unconstitutional and had asked for an independent investigation.
State troopers and officers with the Department of Public Safety are allowed to fire on vehicles during pursuits. They can shoot to disable a vehicle, to defend themselves or others from death or serious injury, or to apprehend those suspected of using or trying to use deadly force, according to the agency’s general manual.
Officials with the Department of Public Safety said in a statement that they were reviewing all related policies, but they defended the actions of the officer in the helicopter, identified as Miguel Avila, saying that the truck was traveling fast near two elementary schools and a middle school and posed “an immediate threat to the schoolchildren and motoring public.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of room for error,” said Rob Hogan, a lawyer representing Mr. Leija’s relatives. “Essentially what they’re doing is, they’re allowing D.P.S. troopers to become snipers. That may be something appropriate for Afghanistan or Iraq in a military operation, but it’s not appropriate for a community law enforcement function.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/texas-officers-truck-chase-is-under-inquiry.html?hp&_r=0
Why worry about drones when the police are allowed to fire on vehicles?