Pursuits by NC state troopers skyrocket 130% in four years; expert questions vague policy

The number of pursuits initiated by the North Carolina Highway Patrol has more than doubled in the last four years — from 454 chases in 2019 to 1,061 last year — and the agency has been unable to pinpoint specific reasons for the dramatic increase.

The Highway Patrol reports 13 people were seriously hurt and seven people died in pursuits in 2022, including two innocent passengers involved in a crash in Johnston County in May.

Troopers said they were attempting to pull over Tanya Terry, of Roanoke Rapids, for speeding in excess of 15 miles over the speed limit. The chase reached speeds of 112 miles per hour before Terry crossed the center line on U.S. Highway 301 in Kenly and hit a pick-up truck head-on.

Marvin Atkinson, 43, and Thaddeus Mickens, 56, died in the crash. The driver of the pick-up, Otis Allen, survived.

'My other half is now gone': Men killed by driver in high-speed chase were family, fathers, friends

“It’s been a hard time for this family. We are still grieving,” said Barbara Mickens, Thaddeus Mickens’ cousin. “He was a cool guy. He loved to do his concrete. That’s the only work he knew. He loved pouring concrete with his soul.”

“I blame [Terry] to a certain extent, but I am more upset with the police because I still feel like they could have had backup and you should not have chased this woman through town.”

The SHP’s policy lists speeding drivers in the same “higher priority” category as violent offenders.

The policy requires all chases to be analyzed by three supervisors and an 8-member Post-Chase Review Board; however, the agency does not make the final post-chase reports public because they include protected information about a trooper’s performance.

WRAL filed a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained the SHP’s 2021 “Post-Chase Analysis” which shows 238 of 896 chases that year — 27% — were not within the agency’s policy. Seven chases — less than one percent — were referred to Internal Affairs.

Geoff Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina who has studied police pursuits for nearly 40 years, believes chases should be limited to those suspected of violent crimes.

“One of the worst things we see are having these vague policies where you are forcing the officer to make a dozen decisions very quickly during the stress and adrenaline dump that’s involved in a pursuit,” said Alpert. “You don’t want bad guys getting away but you can’t put the public at a huge risk.”

A majority of pursuits in 2021 — 63% — started because of speeding, according to the SHP’s analysis, which shows dozens of chases were initiated because of registration violations, reckless driving and driving while impaired.

In North Carolina, the number of chases has increased 134% in the last four years:

2019: 454

2020: 616

2021: 896

2022: 1,061

Alpert points out that in many states “we have seen a dramatic decrease because most policies are reducing the type of offenses for which police can pursue.”

SHP’s policy allows troopers to initiate a chase with non-hazardous violators, including those suspected of license, registration, or equipment violations, even though they acknowledge “these violators pose no immediate threat to the safety of the public.”

The policy reads, “Any member in an authorized Patrol vehicle may initiate a chase when the member, after weighing the factors to be considered prior to initiating extraordinary vehicle operation and determining that the need for immediate apprehension of the suspect or violator is greater than the danger of the chase to the public, the member, and the suspect or violator and that such chase can be accomplished with due regard for the safety of others.”

Colonel Freddy Johnson, commander of the SHP, declined multiple requests since November to talk with WRAL Investigates about the agency’s pursuit data.

In a written statement, spokesperson First Sgt. Chris Knox said, “There have been no policy or procedural changes on our part attributing to the rise in the number of pursuits. The decision to not comply with a traffic stop and attempt to flee falls on the driver of the violator vehicle themselves.

“Although we cannot speak to the emotional or psychological factors that go into a driver's mindset when they decide to flee, we can say that common occurrences of the fleeing driver having active warrants, being impaired, possessing illegal narcotics [or] weapons or having just committed a crime and is in the process of escaping the area are often later determined,” Knox said.

SHP said all pursuits are monitored in real-time by a supervisor who takes speed, location, weather, traffic conditions and other factors into consideration when determining whether to continue pursuing a fleeing driver.

In the last five years, 29 people died in chases, including one trooper, and 49 people were seriously hurt.

Mickens hopes the SHP will implement policies limiting chases to save the lives of innocent people, like her cousin, caught in the middle of high-stakes situations.

“If it is somebody wanted for murder or kidnapping a child then I could understand, but if it’s just somebody failing to stop for a ticket or something you should not be risking other people’s lives in a high-speed chase like that. You shouldn’t,” she said.

The SHP indicated in its 2021 analysis report that all members would receive “Driving In-Service” training in 2023 to review safe driving tactics during pursuits.