Border Patrol to Use High-Speed Cars for Shorter, Safer Pursuits

Four high-performance sports cars will be deployed by the U.S. Border Patrol along the Arizona-Mexico border in hopes of making high-speed chases shorter, safer and less frequent, officials said Thursday.

Two Pontiac Trans-Am Formula 350s, a Camaro IROC Z-28 and a special service Ford Mustang soon will be deployed in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which was chosen to test and evaluate the high-performance vehicles, said Robert S. Coffin, the sector’s chief deputy patrol officer.

The four cars, valued at about $60,000, were purchased with money from the Border Alliance, an inter-agency group that fights drug-smuggling along the border, Coffin said. They will have Border Patrol decals, sirens and flashing lights.

Aug. 22 Deployment Set

The cars are to be deployed Aug. 22, said Ronald Dowdy, chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector.

Dowdy and Coffin said the idea is to make high-speed pursuits shorter, and, therefore, safer. The agency also will publicize the use of the high-performance cars in hopes of discouraging suspects from trying to run away, they said.

One advantage of the high-performance cars is their faster acceleration, Dowdy said. He said agents often are parked when someone speeds past them and catching up can be difficult.

Coffin said suspects often try to get far enough ahead of pursuing agents so that they can dump the car and “bail out.” The use of high-performance cars should discourage that, he said.

Nine officers have been chosen to be part of the pilot program. They will be sent to a special high-speed school in California.

“We want them to learn to handle vehicles at high speeds before we put them out there in these vehicles,” Coffin said.

Officers to Evaluate Cars

The officers will evaluate the performance of the cars and make a recommendation to the Border Patrol in about six months. If the cars are found to be effective, more could be purchased in the future, Coffin said.

Dowdy said the Border Patrol, which has a fleet of about 200 cars, initially plans to deploy the high-performance vehicles along Interstates 19 and 10.