Houston’s police chief unveiled sweeping changes to the department’s vehicle pursuit policy Thursday that might have prevented hundreds of crashes, had those changes been made earlier.

From 2018 through 2022, eight people died and 137 were injured after officers chased 2,200 drivers suspected only of traffic violations or failing to stop for police. Now, those practices are banned, Chief Troy Finner said.

“We’ve got to do even better, and the system as a whole has to do better,” the chief said.

Under the new policy, officers can no longer chase drivers suspected of Class C offenses, such as theft and minor traffic violations — the leading cause of HPD vehicle pursuits in the past five years, a Houston Chronicle analysis found.