Police led on two different car chases in just two days, and that raises some concerns for not only officer safety, but for the safety of bystanders and drivers on the road.
The Lubbock Police Department tells us high speed police chases can put hundreds of lives at risk.
In Slaton on Tuesday the suspect fired shots at officers and then took off and on Wednesday, a suspect led police on a chase before running a red light and causing a wreck involving four other cars at the intersection of Indiana and 82
LPD says their officers are trained on how to handle the situation safely to try and limit the amount of people at risk.
We actually saw an example of those procedures in play yesterday when officers stopped the chase after realizing it was putting people's lives in danger.
"What our officers have to consider throughout before engaging or while engaging in a pursuit is does the importance of capturing that suspect in the vehicle pursuit, does that outweigh the risk that the public and officers and others who may be involved in the area would face," said LPD spokesman Jonathan Stewart.
As for Wednesday's chase that ended in a wreck, Stewart said officers took the right steps to try and prevent that from happening by backing off of the chase, but sometimes accidents do still happen.
