DALLAS — Dallas Police officers broke department pursuit policy during a July 2023 high-speed police chase of a stolen U-Haul that ended with an officer shooting and wounding a suspect near Dallas Love Field, the city’s independent police monitor’s office found.

Two officers followed the suspect when he drove on the wrong side of the road and two uninvolved officers drove in excess of 110 miles per hour to catch up to the chase — both among the violations of pursuit policy the Dallas Office of Community Police Oversight (OCPO) found. 

“It’s a danger, you have citizens driving the other direction and obviously a head-on collision could easily occur which could be catastrophic,” said OCPO Special Investigator Greg Huff, who reviewed the case. 

The sergeant who reviewed the pursuit and determined it followed departmental guidelines was himself involved in the chase — and broke department rules by failing to evaluate the risk of continuing the chase, the OCPO said in its report issued this week. 

The OCPO report also said the sergeant could not view the dash camera footage from the pursuit as part of his report because it was under review as part of criminal and internal affairs investigations into the police shooting at the time. 

Both the internal affairs division of DPD and the OCPO determined officers were justified in shooting Ryan Taylor, then 41, when he abandoned the U-Haul, ran toward a hangar near the airport, and fired at officers. Records show Taylor reached a plea deal with prosecutors in July and remains behind bars. 

A Dallas Police spokesperson said the procedure for reviewing pursuits was followed appropriately, but said DPD “will review the policy to include specific language regarding who is responsible for reviewing pursuits.” 

The high-speed chase preceding the shooting stretched nearly 14 minutes on residential streets and the Dallas North Tollway before ending on Lemmon Avenue. Dash camera footage released by DPD showed the U-Haul appear to purposefully sideswipe vehicles on the DNT and nearly miss a DART bus while speeding away from officers.

“Someone could’ve been harmed in that pursuit that wasn’t involved,” said OCPO Director and Police Monitor Michele Andre. “That’s what I was thinking about. The potential for casualty.” 

She said the department should change its policy to ensure the DPD supervisor reviewing a police chase was not involved in the incident. “That really didn’t happen here and I think it’s important to make sure that occurs,” she said. 

Among the violations of the general orders, Huff noted to the Community Police Oversight Board Tuesday evening:  

• Prohibited to cross a divided highway
• No more than three vehicles in a pursuit
• Do not drive with lights and sirens to catch up to a pursuit unless directed by a supervisor
• Order a pursuit discontinued if the risk outweighs the immediate need to apprehend the suspect
• Failure of a supervisor to take action when a violation of department rules occurs
• Failure to inform dispatch of other collisions

“You need to hold officers accountable who are violating the policy otherwise it condones the behavior and allows that behavior to continue in future pursuits,” Huff said. “There’s a policy for a reason and that reason is to try to keep the officers safe and try to keep the citizens safe during these type of incidents.” 

Huff said the goal of the review is not to get officers in trouble, but to correct behavior to create a safer community. 

“There is a policy that specifically prohibits that type of conduct for common sense reasons of just the sheer danger of that,” he said. 

The Community Police Oversight Board unanimously voted Tuesday night to accept Huff’s findings and forward them to Police Chief Daniel Comeaux for his review. 

Comeaux “will determine if further action will be taken, including discipline,” a DPD spokesperson said.