Deaths from police chases are at an all-time high. These pursuits and their sometimes fatal consequences have come into sharper focus in cities like Fort Worth. But the federal data is barely scratching the surface — it only accounts for chases that ended in a fatality.
In Texas, no one knows how many chases police initiate every year. Not the Texas Department of Public Safety. Not the families whose loved ones are killed or injured in pursuits. Not the Texas lawmakers tasked with passing legislation on policing in the state.
But Texas isn’t the only state flying blind — the vast majority of states don’t have a system for tracking police pursuits. That falls to local police departments, each with their own method for authorizing, categorizing and tracking pursuits.
To get a sense of the total number of pursuits in a state, residents would have to gather information from each department through open records requests — a time-intensive and expensive process.
“Some people, sadly, in the law enforcement industry still to this day, do not understand the real nature and the ability to help that data has on their law enforcement practices,” said Alex del Carmen, a criminologist at Tarleton State University. “And they don’t appreciate the importance of data collection … the importance of having data interpreted, analyzed and implemented.”
A review of state policies by KERA News and the Fort Worth Report found that even in states where tracking occurs, their processes aren’t always created equal.
The review identified six states with some version of a statewide database on police pursuits, but those states differ on whether local agencies are required — or just encouraged — to report their chases to a regulatory body. And when there are reporting requirements, they aren’t always strictly enforced.
But del Carmen said if states have rules in place to track police pursuits, those rules should be followed and regularly enforced.
“It should be a mandate,” del Carmen said. “And what that means is that the public should expect from police agencies that they adhere to principles, guidelines and the law the same way that they enforce it on the public.”
Mandated reporting
California and Texas led the country in total pursuit-related fatalities between 1996 and 2015. That fact, along with an alarming number of crashes that injured or killed innocent bystanders, inspired former state Sen. Gloria Romero and her colleague to author California’s Senate Bill 719 in 2005.
California already required law enforcement agencies to track certain information after a pursuit, like the pursuit’s cause and whether anyone involved in the pursuit was injured. When SB 719 took effect in 2006, it expanded those requirements to include information like the conditions of the pursuit, whether the pursuit resulted in a collision that injured or killed an uninvolved bystander, and the pursuit’s outcome.
“I just believe the more information we have, the more educated we are about what’s working, what’s not, and what might need to change,” Romero said. “And if it’s working, then you know what? Leave it alone.”
Agencies must submit a form detailing the circumstances of a chase to the California Highway Patrol within 30 days of the pursuit. CHP then compiles the data into an annual report and submits it to state lawmakers. The agency also maintains an internal Pursuit Reporting System used to report and review chase data.
Other states have had policies in place for several decades. Minnesota has required its law enforcement agencies to report pursuit data to the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for 36 years. The information goes through the agency’s Supplemental Reporting System, and is published in the Minnesota Crime Data Explorer.
In Pennsylvania, lawmakers created the state’s own police pursuit tracking database in 1994. And since the current system went into effect in 1996, all police departments in Pennsylvania have been required to track their police pursuits and report them to the Pennsylvania State Police.
PSP then analyzes the data and sends an annual report on police chases to various entities, such as independent citizen police review boards across the state. The reports provide a general look at why pursuits were initiated and terminated, the number of fatalities and arrests made.
That data is used to tell law enforcement agencies what’s working and what’s not when it comes to pursuits. But it’s up to individual agencies to make those changes, said Adam Reed, PSP’s director of communications.
“It’s a really important tool for police departments to have at their disposal to take a look at this data and take a look at the trends to see how they can improve and make things safer,” Reed said.
Some states have more recently caught on to the benefits of tracking pursuit data statewide. After a series of high profile chase incidents, Connecticut lawmakers in 2019 began requiring law enforcement to report information about their pursuits to the state, which is then compiled in an annual report.
That report details specific department level data, including the number of sworn officers, the number of chases and the pursuit rate per 100 police officers. Connecticut’s law also requires annual reports to lawmakers, with any legislative recommendations based on the pursuit data officials have collected.
Inadequate enforcement
In Pennsylvania, law enforcement agencies maintain different reporting procedures so the statewide data isn’t comprehensive. A recent NBC Philadelphia investigation found the city’s police department hadn’t reported dozens of pursuits to PSP since 2019.
The agency told NBC Philadelphia state police aren’t responsible for whether local law enforcement agencies report their data correctly or completely. The law doesn’t give state police any power to compel local departments to more diligently track their pursuit data, nor do these departments face any consequences.
Reed acknowledged this lack of data leaves an incomplete picture of police chases across the state.
“But we strive to ensure cooperation from all of the police agencies in Pennsylvania, and we do strongly urge that the appropriate data is entered in a timely fashion,” he said. “That’s going to help us paint a bigger, clearer picture of everything going on.”
A couple states to the west, reporting is even less thorough. The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board readily acknowledges that while it tracks pursuits in an annual report, that report doesn’t encompass every chase.
“The pursuits reported are likely only a small percentage of what occurs throughout the state,” Executive Director Keith Calloway wrote in a 2023 report. “Agencies have their own documents and many do not submit documents through the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.”
Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation requires law enforcement agencies to use a form to gather information on police pursuits each year and include the circumstances of the pursuit, the outcome, the number of resulting injuries or deaths and other pertinent information.
But that information isn’t readily accessible online like in other states. The department is currently working on a new platform to more easily share pursuit data, according to a spokesperson.
Barriers to implementation
There are a number of reasons police departments might not track their pursuit data carefully or at all, del Carmen said. Creating a standardized method to collect pursuit data across more than 2,700 law enforcement agencies in a state as big as Texas, for example, could prove a challenge.
Some departments see continually collecting and analyzing data as an administrative burden. Agencies nationwide are dealing with officer shortages and limited budgets.
But del Carmen said overcoming those challenges in Texas is feasible, and agencies that have an existing police pursuit system should stick to their promises. State databases can help determine what’s working — and what’s not — when it comes to chases. That can be used to update policies as necessary, del Carmen said.
“Ultimately, law enforcement works directly for the public,” del Carmen said. “And so, ultimately, this is perhaps the greatest sign of transparency and accountability.”
Romero’s legislation, which required more standardized training on police chases, didn’t pass without some initial pushback from California law enforcement groups. Compromise was a must, she said.
It was also a bipartisan effort. Romero was a Democrat during her time in office — she’s now a Republican — and SB 719 was co-authored by former California Sen. Bob Margett, a Republican. Although Texas’ political makeup is vastly different from California’s, Romero said it’s necessary for these big states to lead the nation in police pursuit data transparency, even if progress is incremental and met with resistance.
“I always think, don’t be afraid of data. Data should help us. I believe in data,” Romero said. “I think the more protections and rules and training we have and enforcement of that, I think we’re in a better position to protect ourselves by doing the right thing.”
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.
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Emily Wolf is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org or @_wolfemily
