Opinion ID: 2104012
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sergeant Williams

Text: Sergeant Williams' affidavit discusses all Wadewitz's need factors. On the seriousness of the situation he was responding to, Williams stated: When I made the decision to stop the ... jeep, I knew that the driver was a suspect in assaultive conduct and that he fled police officers who were attempting to detain him and had committed the criminal offense of evading detention which is a class B misdemeanor. Furthermore, the suspect had not been identified before he fled the foot patrol officers.... The manner in which the suspect operated his vehicle and the high rate of speed at which he traveled caused me to believe that the suspect posed a danger to the public. Williams further stated that when he parked his patrol car in the suspect's way to stop him, the suspect drove around Williams' vehicle at a high rate of speed. Therefore, although Williams does not detail the seriousness of the assault allegedly committed on campus, he does discuss the seriousness of the situation as a whole, as Chambers and Wadewitz require. See Wadewitz, 951 S.W.2d at 467; Chambers, 883 S.W.2d at 656-57. On whether his presence was immediately necessary to apprehend the suspect and on the availability of alternatives to pursuit, Williams stated that he knew that the suspect had not been identified. Thus, Williams' affidavit discussed the seriousness of the situation he was responding to, the need to immediately apprehend the suspect, and the availability of alternative actions to apprehend the suspect. Williams also considered the Wadewitz risk factors in assessing the risks to the public of his pursuit. He stated that when the pursuit occurred, around 2:00 a.m., the weather was clear and the pavement was dry and the traffic was light. He observed that the area was commercial and that there were no cars other than the suspect vehicle and Officer Stewart's on the roadway. Williams further stated: When the suspect vehicle proceeded onto M.L.K. Blvd., I knew that the street was divided by a median and that to the left was a green belt and to the right was a park; therefore, no traffic would be intersecting M.L.K. Blvd. There was no traffic from the point of entrance one (1) to M.L.K. Blvd. and no traffic from M.L.K. to Old Spanish Trail. From my professional experience, I was aware that suspect vehicles will often appear to flee but stop after having time to observe emergency lights and siren behind them. When I decided to pursue the suspect vehicle, I believed that at that time of night with the minimal traffic on the street and the nature of the area in which I traveled, diminished the risk from the pursuit itself, while the suspect and the manner in which he operated his vehicle posed a significant risk to the public. I believed, and in my opinion any reasonably prudent police officer in my position would also have believed, that during the pursuit, the need to stop the suspect vehicle was essential to insure the safety of the public by way of attempting to follow the suspect vehicle. Although Williams did not use the exact language Wadewitz employs, we cannot agree with the court of appeals that Williams' affidavit does not assess the nature, severity, likelihood, and obviousness of his pursuit's risks to the public, namely the risk of a collision with a third party. See Wadewitz, 951 S.W.2d at 467. Summary judgment requires that a movant establish facts upon which the court could base its legal conclusion, not that the parties use particular words. See Wadewitz, 951 S.W.2d at 467; Siders v. State, 970 S.W.2d 189, 194 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1998, pet. denied); Pena v. Neal, 901 S.W.2d 663, 668 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1995, writ denied). Just because Williams's affidavit did not explicitly mention the risk of colliding with a third party does not mean that he did not assess this risk. This risk is present to some degree in every police pursuit. In assessing such facts as the time of day and traffic, weather and road conditions, Williams was assessing the specific circumstances present that affected this risk. And, the summary judgment record does not indicate that there were other circumstances that increased or decreased this risk or that presented a different risk to the public. We agree with Justice Edelman's dissent in the court of appeals that an officer should not be required in his affidavit to affirmatively negate the existence of all circumstances or risks that did not actually exist. 979 S.W.2d at 719 (Edelman, J., dissenting). Further, we conclude that Williams' affidavit established that he acted in good faith. His affidavit includes facts upon which a reasonably prudent officer in the same or similar circumstances could agree that the need to pursue the suspect (considering that the suspect had allegedly committed an assault and was driving recklessly) outweighed the pursuit's risk to the public (considering that there was very little traffic at that time of night, that the area was primarily commercial, that the weather and road conditions were good, and that there were few roads intersecting the road where the pursuit occurred).