Several years ago, right after a young mother was killed by a police car involved in a chase (but without sirens, for some reason), the Dallas Morning News showed the results of a study that noted that, statistically speaking, the chances that the person being chased was wanted for a violent felony of any kind prior to the chase was virtually non-existent. Houston won't even be on the cutting edge on this issue. Many departments across the country have limited chases over the past several years. Dallas very recently adopted such a policy. As far as I know, there's been no increase in the crime rate in those cities that have had the policy for some time, nor have they seen an increase in the number of people who try to flee (knowing that they're home free). I agree that the policy has some pros to it but most people do run because they are hiding something worse. Something like 90% of all people who flee end up being wanted for nothing more than minor traffic infractions. According to one statistic I saw, every fifth high speed chase ends with either a death or severe injury. Most often, it's the police officer who's injured, though innocent bystanders are also often injured.
