LAMPASAS, Texas (KXXV) — After a deadly crash in downtown Lampasas last week, questions have arisen about how officers are trained to handle high-speed chases and what factors they consider when deciding whether to pursue a suspect.
The Lampasas Police Department (LPD) was not involved in the chase, which resulted in the fatal crash. Still, Police Chief Jody Cummings and Patrol Lieutenant Chuck Montgomery offered insight into officers' decision-making process when initiating a pursuit.
“We’re starting the pursuit as a patrol officer, and I start weighing: What’s the traffic like? Where are we going? What are the speeds? What are we chasing this person for?” Montgomery said. “It’s always a sliding scale of whether the risk this person poses to the public outweighs the risk of chasing.”
In the most recent case, a 16-year-old male died after Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers attempted to pull him over for reckless driving. The chase lasted nearly 11 miles before ending in downtown Lampasas when the suspect crashed into another car and damaged a local bank.
Cummings added that while most chases typically begin when an officer attempts to pull a vehicle over, they also take preventive measures to deter high-speed pursuits.
“A professional command presence from many law enforcement agencies is always out and about, looking like they should. They know their job and are ready to respond,” Cummings said.
However, he stressed that there is no clear pattern to when or why chases occur. According to LPD, the department had eight pursuits in 2024, five in 2023, and seven in 2022.
“We haven’t had a city police officer involved in a pursuit since August. We had eight last year, about one a month until then, but I can’t tell you a rhyme or reason why,” Cumming said.
In the past six months, Central Texas communities have witnessed several high-speed chases with devastating outcomes. A chase in Killeen ended in a crash inside a JCPenney, and another pursuit from Woodway to Coryell County left three people dead.
