The city of Fort Worth is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the release of its police pursuit policy, after multiple news organizations sought to obtain it through open records requests.
The pursuit policy came under scrutiny after two residents died in unrelated police chases in the span of a month last summer — Andra Craig, 57, and a 15-year-old girl. Craig was an innocent driver who was struck by a police SUV pursuing another vehicle and ejected from his car, dying on the scene. The 15-year-old girl was inside of a truck being pursued by police when it slammed into a pole, killing her.
Fort Worth Report journalist Emily Wolf, Fort Worth Star-Telegram journalist Harriet Ramos and CBS journalist Kelsy Mittauer all filed open records requests seeking the portion of the police department’s general orders governing police pursuits. In addition, Argelia Castanon with Anchor Risk and Claims Management filed a records request related to a specific police pursuit.
The city denied those requests, instead appealing to the attorney general’s office. That office has the authority to determine whether information can be withheld from the public under the law. The records, city attorneys said, contain specific procedures and personnel responsibilities for vehicle pursuits. Fort Worth argued those records are confidential because they are internal records used for enforcement or prosecution, and include tactical information used to “prevent, detect, respond to, and investigate acts of terrorism or related to criminal activity.”
The attorney general found that the city could withhold some of the records but could not withhold all of the information at issue, because it:
- Did not demonstrate the applicability of the law enforcement agency’s internal record or notation exclusion to the information at issue.
- Failed to demonstrate that the information at issue was confidential under the Texas Homeland Security Act.
Instead of releasing the records after receiving the attorney general opinion, Fort Worth filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court seeking a declaration that the records are confidential and may continue to be withheld.
In its lawsuit, the city argues that releasing the information would undermine police responses and could jeopardize the safety of both the public and police officers.
“The release of this information to anyone will jeopardize the lives of police officers, citizens, and other individuals in the city,” the city wrote in its suit.
In September, Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes told the Fort Worth Report that as long as he was chief, the pursuit policy would not be made public. He said there were some crimes that the department doesn’t initiate chases for, but he didn’t want to make that information public.
“There are certain tactics that officers use that we don’t necessarily want everyone, specifically criminals, to know about,” he said.
Fort Worth’s position stands in contrast to many other North Texas police departments, as reported by CBS News. Bedford, Dallas, Frisco, Grapevine, Irving, Kennedale, Lewisville, Lancaster, Mesquite, North Richland Hills, Plano, Richardson, Richland Hills and White Settlement all release their police pursuit policies through records requests or post them online.
Fort Worth City Council members are expected to ratify the lawsuit during their Jan. 23 meeting.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here. Emily Wolf is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org or @_wolfemily
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.