At least 5 die when SUV crashes after being chased by Border Patrol, then deputy, Texas sheriff says

[spanone]

(CNN)A vehicle packed with undocumented immigrants flipped Sunday, ejecting 12 people and killing at least five after a chase in south Texas, Dimmit County Sheriff Marion Boyd said.

Four people were killed at the scene about 50 miles from the Mexico border and a fifth person died at a hospital in San Antonio, the sheriff said.

The incident started after a Border Patrol agent in Carrizo Springs suspected smuggling when he saw a trio of vehicles pass him on a rural highway around 11 a.m., US Customs and Border Protection said. The agent stopped one vehicle and radioed a description of the other vehicles to other agents, the agency said.

A second agent stopped the second vehicle and several people were arrested from those two vehicles, but the third vehicle didn't stop when an agent tried to pull it over, Customs and Border Protection said.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/17/us/border-patrol-collision-texas/index.html

[RockRaven]

1. Car chases themselves present a threat of life and limb to the general public

They should not be engaged in unless a) the contemporaneous behavior of the party being chased present(ed) a danger to the public (i.e. drunk drivers, persons interrupted in the midst of a violent crime who flee, etc) or b) the identity of the fleeing party is known to law enforcement and they are a suspect in a violent/dangerous crime.

In other cases, the party being chased represents more risk to the public *by being chased* than by existing un-chased.

A lot of law enforcement has got it twisted. Public safety is ensured by *ensuring safety*, not by ensuring laws are enforced. Laws are tools, a means to an end, not the be all and end all. Law enforcement agencies which don't teach/train appropriate discretion are negligent and counterproductive.