Risky, high-speed chases explode under Memphis safe task force

MPD conducted eight of the chases and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office conducted one.

In all, 32 of the 75 chases (43 percent) resulted in accidents. Twenty-nine of those accidents (91 percent) involved chases by THP.

The affidavits, filed to convince judicial commissioners there is evidence of a crime, often are silent on the number and severity of injuries. A man died in a chase last month, outside The Institute’s period of review, but it’s unclear which agency led the chase.

Arrest affidavits reviewed by The Institute describe many aggressive encounters between motorists and THP, which appears to have a vehicle pursuit policy that is more permissive than those of many law enforcement agencies.

Troopers engaged in pursuits often exceeding 100 mph, affidavits show, chasing fleeing motorists down freeways, through red lights on city streets and into residential neighborhoods — followed at times by immigration agents and other federal officers who joined foot chases after fleeing Hispanic men bailed out of their cars and began to run.

Lewis said she had just got home when she heard sirens and then a loud crash. She went outside and began taking pictures and video as troopers pulled guns and surrounded the wrecked vehicle. “If I (had been) pulling my trash can down I could (have gotten) run over,” she said.

Nightly TV news reports in Memphis have often included reports of high-speed chases and spectacular crashes in recent weeks. But The Institute’s review of arrest affidavits is the first attempt to inventory the chases over time. The affidavits, filed under oath by arresting officers, detail a number of harrowing, white-knuckle pursuits.

One chase on Oct. 7, initiated after a trooper spotted a motorist failing to wear a seat belt, ended when the fleeing Cadillac DTS crashed into KIPP Memphis Collegiate High School while it was in session. There were no reported injuries.

The incident was one of several that ended in accidents when troopers initiated chases after attempting to pull over motorists for relatively minor infractions. Among them:

• On Oct. 3, a motorist in a black Nissan Altima led a THP patrol car on a 110 mph chase down Winchester Road after a trooper attempted to pull over the motorist for driving “with no activated headlights.’’ The chase ended when the Altima “stalled in the roadway,’’ an affidavit says. The motorist bailed out of the vehicle without putting it in park, and it “continued to roll forward and ultimately struck an uninvolved vehicle before colliding with a concrete pole’’ in a parking lot. Troopers recovered two stolen guns from the car and two grams of marijuana, an amount equivalent to a misdemeanor possession charge.
• On Oct. 12, after a trooper attempted to pull over a vehicle with one functioning headlight, the driver led the trooper on a 120 mph chase down James Road, running red lights at two major intersections in Memphis’ Raleigh community. The driver turned south on Covington Pike and attempted to get on Interstate 40 when he “lost control of his vehicle and went into the ditch,’’ an affidavit said. Troopers recovered 4.4 grams of marijuana — another misdemeanor amount — and found the motorist was driving on a suspended license.
• On Oct. 30, a trooper tried to stop a gold Chevrolet Impala with a missing tag light. The motorist led the trooper on a 100 mph chase down Interstate 240. About 5 miles into the 9-mile chase, the fleeing Impala rear-ended an SUV and kept going. Four miles later, “the fleeing vehicle struck another vehicle and became disabled,” an affidavit said. Troopers found three grams of marijuana and charged the driver with DUI after he admitted to “smoking a joint in the vehicle.”

The dangers of police chases

Most law enforcement agencies wouldn’t allow many of the THP pursuits because the reason for initiating the stop wasn’t serious enough to merit the dangers of a high-speed chase, said Dennis Kenney, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

“There’s only a few things that could happen when you begin a pursuit and almost all of them are bad,’’ Kenney said. “So, pursuits are something that most police departments for the last 20 years or so have tried to restrain to the extent possible.’’

A fleeing driver died in January during a law enforcement pursuit in Memphis, though details remain sketchy. The death, which occurred outside The Institute’s period of review, happened when the fleeing driver crashed during a chase through Memphis’s Raleigh community. The U.S. Marshals Service, which heads the Memphis Safe Task Force, said in a press release that the chase ensued after task force personnel attempted a traffic stop, but the release didn’t say which agency conducted or led the chase. Task force leaders didn’t respond to emails from The Institute seeking clarification.

The rash of vehicle pursuits in Memphis comes as authorities in many parts of the country are tightening restrictions on chases.

Among recent reforms, New York City tightened its policy last year following numbers of crashes that led to some deaths and caused extensive property damage. Police there now are limited to pursuing motorists who have committed the “most serious and violent crimes.” In November, authorities in Prince George’s County, Maryland, limited pursuits after a 3-year-old girl was killed — one of three bystanders to die there during vehicle pursuits within the span of a month. Among the Prince George’s County restrictions, police must strike “a balance between the need to apprehend the violator and the risks of potential danger to themselves and citizens.”

THP’s vehicle pursuit policy appears to be much less restrictive than policies of many law enforcement agencies. The Institute attempted to obtain THP’s policy under the Tennessee Public Records Act, but state officials said they needed more time to process the request. However, THP cadet training materials obtained from a source show a trooper must consider a range of factors before initiating or continuing a pursuit including the weather, road surface conditions, the safety of the trooper and citizens and the trooper’s driving skills.

In contrast, MPD authorizes vehicle pursuits “only when an officer has probable cause to believe that one or more occupants of a fleeing vehicle have committed a violent felony.’’

Tennessee law provides additional guidance, allowing pursuing officers to pass through red lights and stop signs “only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation” and exceed speed limits “so long as life or property is not thereby endangered.”

Asked to discuss THP’s rash of chases and accidents and its pursuit policy and practices, a spokesman declined comment.

Records show prior to the outbreak of vehicle pursuits in Memphis, the number of THP chases had been much lower — though many chases were initiated following relatively minor offenses.

The agency recorded 422 pursuits statewide in 2024, a little more than one a day on average, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s Office of Professional Accountability annual report, the latest available.

Of those, 359 (85 percent) were initiated following misdemeanor offenses such as speeding, DUI and erratic driving.

That’s consistent with data from agencies across the country that shows suspects who flee are more likely to do so because of a minor offense than because of a serious crime.

The most serious charges in roughly half the pursuits reviewed by The Institute included charges of reckless driving, reckless endangerment or evading arrest, often stemming from the chase itself.

A policy paper sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in 2023 recommends that pursuits take place only when a violent crime has been committed and the suspect “poses an imminent threat to commit another violent crime.’’

“If those two conditions are not met, agencies need to look for alternatives to accomplish the same objective,’’ wrote Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank that advises police agencies across the country.

“You can get a suspect another day, but you can’t get a life back,’’ Wexler wrote.

Risk versus results

Affidavits reviewed by The Institute show THP troopers at times deployed tactics to abort or minimize the risk of vehicle pursuits.

For example, a trooper aborted a 90 mph chase of a white Infiniti with a missing back bumper on Oct. 5 after he “realized that I (had) lost contact with the vehicle.”  Troopers conferred with MPD, which had chased the car earlier, and got its tag number, then the home address of the driver. Troopers then went to the driver’s Southeast Memphis home and arrested him there for reckless driving.

A handful of affidavits show troopers at times would ease off a chase after calling in THP’s aviation unit to track the fleeing driver. One such incident involved a 138 mph chase on I-240 on Oct. 31. “Due to the extreme speed and erratic driving, THP Aviation was requested and assumed observation of the fleeing vehicle,’’ a trooper wrote in an affidavit. The motorist was later arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and other counts.

Overall, however, THP affidavits reveal an aggressive approach to pursuing fleeing drivers.

One affidavit describes what appears to be a trooper forcing a fleeing motorist off the road. A trooper wrote in an Oct. 28 affidavit that he successfully ended a chase in which a 17-year-old driver “led me on a lengthy, dangerous pursuit throughout several populated parts of the city,” by using his “patrol vehicle to cause the suspect’s vehicle to lose control and exit the roadway.” Troopers recovered the car, a stolen Honda Accord, and a Glock handgun with a switch that made it fully automatic.

The affidavit does not provide more detail on the maneuver deployed by the trooper, but John Jay professor Kenney said it sounds like a so-called Precision Immobilization Technique or PIT maneuver. The move involves approaching a fleeing vehicle from behind and then pressing the extreme left front portion of the patrol car against the right rear side of the fleeing car and turning sharply into the car, causing it to spin out of control.

Despite the danger, the incident is one of several in the affidavits that suggest aggressive tactics can yield results in nabbing drivers who pose road safety threats. Arrests connected to the 66 THP vehicle pursuits include at least 10 people charged with drunken-driving. Eleven were charged with motor vehicle theft.

Task force supporters point to such achievements and a 30 percent drop in traffic fatalities in Shelby County from 2024 to 2025.

“There’s no more drag racing in the streets. The streets have been reclaimed. People now have motor vehicle tags and insurance, whereas they had gone without since the 2020 pandemic. Everything feels much improved,” said Jason Whitworth, a Memphis attorney who applauds the work of the Memphis Safe Task Force.

Heavy toll on the poor

But for others, THP’s aggressive vehicle pursuits have more to do with criminalizing poverty than making Memphis roads safe. Critics say police often target traffic stops on poor people who can’t afford to make needed auto repairs or keep vehicle registration up to date.

Among THP’s 66 vehicle pursuits, as many as 32 (48 percent) were initiated after troopers attempted to pull over motorists for vehicle equipment violations such as a missing headlight or broken taillight, or other minor infractions like excessively tinted windows and expired temporary tags.

“These traffic stops are the laziest form of policing and in itself proves that they aren’t looking for violent criminals. They are looking for anyone to hem up for any reason to boost their numbers.” said Hunter Demster, a criminal justice reform activist in Memphis.

“Memphis has historically been one of the poorest cities in the country. Many folks are struggling to feed their children, pay rent, pay for their prescriptions, etc. When faced with these decisions, basic necessities prevail. These are struggles happening now. Folks with resources get their vehicles fixed.”

Nearly a quarter of Memphis’ population lives in poverty, and the disadvantages of being poor are seen in several traffic stops in which fleeing vehicles suddenly malfunctioned, abruptly ending chases. Among such incidents:

•  An MPD officer’s Oct. 20 pursuit of a 2013 Infiniti G37 abruptly ended when “the passenger-side rear tire immediately came off.”
• A brief chase by a state trooper of a black sedan on Oct. 2 ended with a “driver’s side front tire blow out” on the fleeing vehicle.
• A trooper’s 100 mph chase of a silver Infiniti SUV on Oct. 5 ended when the fleeing vehicle “caught on fire.”

Keedran Franklin, a Memphis criminal justice reform advocate and community organizer, said people often run from law enforcement now because of the widespread fear on the streets since the 2023 police beating death of Tyre Nichols.

“People are seeing the news and they know, okay, we have this so-called task force in the city right? And they also see around the country where these same task force agencies have inflicted bodily harm,’’ Franklin said.