Immigration Service Sets Chase Criteria : Restrictions: The INS tightens the rules governing high-speed pursuits in the wake of the tragedy in Temecula that killed six.

U.S. immigration authorities, harshly criticized after a Border Patrol chase led to a crash that killed six people outside a Temecula high school, have decided to tighten restrictions on high-speed pursuits, greatly limiting agents’ discretion, officials said Friday.

The new policy, released in Washington, prohibits agents from embarking on high-speed pursuits unless four specific safety criteria are met, thereby ensuring that the “immediate danger” of the chase is no greater than the “potential danger” to the public should suspects remain at large.

Moreover, Border Patrol officials will be required to terminate high-speed chases when, in the judgment of officers or their supervisors, “the danger posed to the public, the officers or the suspect is greater than the benefit of apprehending the suspect.”

The revised guidelines, designed to address widely criticized shortcomings in the existing pursuit policy, will probably not go into effect for several weeks, until the information has been disseminated to field offices and agents across the nation, said Virginia C. Kice, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Officials are still formulating operating instructions, Kice said.

The action, disclosed in Washington, comes at a time when the Border Patrol, a uniformed enforcement arm of the INS, is facing almost unprecedented scrutiny as a result of the June 2 Temecula incident, in which an immigrant-smuggling truck fleeing a Border Patrol sedan crashed, killing six people.

The tragedy sparked outrage in the fast-growing Riverside County suburb and elsewhere in California, where Border Patrol chases have been blamed for at least 21 fatalities since 1980.

Prompted by the Temecula tragedy, two congressional panels are scheduled to hold hearings examining Border Patrol policies within the next weeks. Lawmakers will examine the revised policies and may seek additional restrictions, said U.S. Rep. Al McCandless of La Quinta, ranking Republican on the Government Operations Subcommittee on Information, Justice and Agriculture.

“If the subcommittee finds that current pursuit policies need further revisions in order to keep our citizens safe while controlling our borders, we will pursue such revisions with vigor,” said McCandless, whose district includes the Temecula area of Riverside County.

At the time of the Temecula crash, U.S. immigration authorities say, they were already reviewing pursuit policies. Critics have long said that a wide-ranging revision of guidelines was needed, particularly in densely populated Southern California, where most of the chases take place.

Temecula city officials could not be reached for comment.

Under the revised guidelines, agents may not initiate high-speed chases unless the following four criteria are met:

* Suspects seek to avoid arrest by using vehicles at excessive speeds or committing other hazardous moving violations.

* Drivers refuse to stop at officers’ commands.

* Suspects “would present a danger to human life or cause serious injury.”

* Officers notify communications personnel.

Once a chase has begun, the new policies require that Border Patrol dispatchers “immediately” notify state and local law enforcement authorities and request aircraft assistance where available.

In Temecula and elsewhere, local law enforcement officers have said that Border Patrol agents never routinely informed them that high-speed pursuits were headed their way.

In the future, communications officers will also be obliged to advise a supervisory agent, who is then charged with monitoring the pursuit and determining whether it should be continued or terminated.

During chases, the new policies will prohibit agents from ramming and heading off pursued vehicles or forcing them into parked cars, ditches or other obstacles.