In an effort to stop the release of its police pursuit policy, the City of Fort Worth is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton following repeated attempts by news organizations to access it via open record requests.
After two unrelated police chases last summer resulted in the death of two residents, the city’s policy has been increasingly under fire.
In 2022, The Dallas Express reported that North Texas was seeing a rise in police pursuits. In November of that year alone, the region recorded 10 chases.
Civilians are not the only ones at risk, either. On November 14, 2022, a Grand Prairie police officer lost his life in a crash pursuing a suspect with a fake license plate.
The City of Forth Worth has received at least three open records requests from journalists for the police department’s general orders around police pursuit.
Another request was submitted by Argelia Castanon of Anchor Risk and Claim Management, seeking details about a specific police pursuit. In each case, the city denied the submissions, opting to appeal to the attorney general’s office.
The AG’s office can assess individual requests to determine if specific information should be censored from the public. According to the city attorney, the records include procedures and protocols for vehicle pursuits. However, the city claims these records remain sealed since they include tactical details they do not want to be shared.
According to the attorney general, the city can withhold some, but not all, records. In this instance, the City of Fort Worth failed to show how the law enforcement agency’s exclusion for internal records or notations applies to the information in question. Furthermore, it did not prove that the sealed details were confidential under the Texas Homeland Security Law.
Upon receiving the AG’s opinion, Fort Worth initiated a lawsuit in Travis County District Court, asserting that the records are confidential and their withholding should continue.
“The release of this information to anyone will jeopardize the lives of police officers, citizens, and other individuals in the city,” the city warned in the filing.
