08:01 AM CST on Friday, January 20, 2006

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

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This risk is clear. The whole point of a police pursuit is to avoid accidents.

Diana McShan-Clayborn can't understand why it ended with her car.

"It shouldn't have went on for two hours. If it wasn't us, it could've been somebody else and he might have killed them. He could have killed us," she said.

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It is unique, a chase that lasted nearly two hours and traveled more than 100 miles through three counties.

In all, there were at least 10 law enforcement agencies directly involved or staged for this incident.

"What you have is an individual that has taken and is using a motor vehicle as a deadly weapon," said Montgomery County Pct. 3 Constable Tim Holifield.

Harris County started the chase and HPD was at the end.

"You'll find that our policy is in line with others around the nation," said Craig Farrell, HPD Legal Services.

In fact, there are two distinct types of police chase policies used by agencies.

HPD, Harris County and Montgomery County have policies that are very specific. They are seven pages long and state that deputies are prohibited from forcing a vehicle off the road, attempting to slow or stop a fleeing vehicle, bumping a fleeing vehicle or shooting at the vehicle.

The Department of Public Safety, Ft. Bend County Sheriff's Department, and the Montgomery County Precinct Three Constables have very different policies, essentially leaving the entire situation up to the discretion of the officers involved.

That includes the ability to use firearms and run vehicles off the road.

"The law enforcement officer can either box the vehicle in, use a rolling roadblock or use the fishtail maneuver, where you spin them out, whatever means necessary to either isolate or stop the threat," said Holifield.

What Holifield thinks is an issue bigger than policy is communication.

"The lack of communication sometimes becomes the roadblock, if you will, in public safety, when officers are having to rely on relayed information," he said.

In this case, county-to-county dispatch phone calls about the chase.

"It appears to me there was a miscommunication between our dispatch and theirs," said Harris County Sheriff's Dept. Mjr. Robert Van Pelt.

A case in point, at 1:19 p.m., Harris County gets a disturbance call, the chase begins at 1:35 p.m. and after losing sight of the car, Harris County terminates the chase at 1:57 p.m.

"It was not an active pursuit at that time," said Van Pelt.

"It was done by the book," Van Pelt said.

But at 2:05 p.m., Montgomery County receives a vehicle description from Harris County. Not until 2:11p.m. was Montgomery County told the chase had terminated.

At 2:13 p.m., the vehicle is seen and Montgomery County begins the chase. They terminated the chase at 2:18 p.m.

But Montgomery Co. Precinct 3 Constables continue on into Harris County , still in pursuit.

Just nine minutes later they too, ended the chase when the constable was unable to respond when the BMW barely made it on to the Beltway.

For four minutes no officers from any agency are visible, until HPD takes up the chase 35 minutes after Harris County had terminated it.

HPD says that it also terminated its involvement in the chase at some point.

"What we should do is if you will follow that particular person we are trying to apprehend with the helicopter and if you will shadow that and whenever an opportunity comes to make and arrest to do so," said

At 3:15 p.m., 45 minutes after the first HPD unit joins in, you see an HPD unit still directly involved. Just 13 seconds after the crash, an HPD unit is on the scene.

Don't try convincing Diana McShan-Clayborn something doesn't need to change.

"If they went about the procedure the way they were supposed to, I'm supposed to get killed because this is what you have set up. Apparently what you have set up is not right," she said.

By the book, it just depends which one you're reading.

HPD began its comments on the chase by saying they wanted to be a "transparent department".

However, HPD is the only law enforcement organization that refused to release the specific times it was involved in the chase.