CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi police will review whether a Monday pursuit, called off after reaching nearly 100 mph on South Padre Island Drive, ever should have started .
The chase began about 11:45 a.m. after an officer spotted a truck that was stolen about two hours earlier after its owner left the keys in it outside of a bank in the Calallen area.
The suspected thief led police on a chase around nearly a dozen Westside streets before entering the freeway and increasing to 100 mph.
The whole pursuit lasted about 16 minutes, police said.
In July of last year, the Police Department announced it had changed its pursuit policy to allow chases only in cases of those who commit serious offenses or are believed to be driving while intoxicated.
When two assistant police chiefs and the police chief saw a patrol car zoom by Monday while they were headed to lunch, they listened to the chase on a police radio and made the decision to call it off.
Police Chief Troy Riggs said officer and resident safety was the main concern.
"You have to take everything into consideration," Riggs said. "Is the risk of that person getting away greater than the risk of a pursuit?"
The stolen truck was found two hours later, empty, and idling in front of a house. The thief hasn't been found.
Riggs said the chase was called off, in part, because no one was harmed.
The department rethought its pursuit policy last year after finding nearly 80 percent of pursuits began with misdemeanor charges or traffic violations, police said.
"A lot of people think we are chasing a big bad criminal, but usually it's just a scared kid," Riggs said.
Capt. John Houston, who oversees police training, including driving techniques, said the department will review the pursuit to see if any protocols were broken and if officers involved will need to receive additional training.
"The policy that we have today is a lot more restrictive, but that's a good thing," Houston said.
"When I started 30 years ago, we pursued until we caught the guy or we ran out of gas."