Months after the Tennessee Highway Patrol refused to disclose its policy governing vehicle pursuits, an attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is seeking court intervention on behalf of a Memphis journalist to compel the policy’s release.
Reporters Committee attorney Paul McAdoo filed suit early today in Davidson County Chancery Court on behalf of Marc Perrusquia, who requested THP’s pursuit policy in February as part of a report analyzing a sharp uptick in high-speed chases on Memphis streets and related crashes. Perrusquia is the director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis but filed suit as a citizen journalist; neither The Institute nor the UofM is party to the suit.
The sole defendant named in the suit is the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which oversees THP.
Perrusquia filed a public records request on Feb. 4 seeking data around the number of THP-initiated pursuits and a copy of THP’s vehicle pursuit policy. Attorneys for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security released the requested data but declined to release the vehicle-pursuit policy, contending it’s confidential.
McAdoo asserts in the court filing that there are no exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act that would justify THP’s refusal to release its policy.
An influx of THP troopers arrived in Memphis in late September as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force — a directive from President Donald Trump and the U. S. Department of Justice that injected thousands of state and federal officers from more than a dozen branches of law enforcement as well as soldiers from the Tennessee National Guard into the Memphis area.
With the arrival of the task force came a sharp increase in high-speed chases breaking out across Memphis.
Analyzing arrest affidavits, The Institute found 75 separate high-speed pursuits occurred in the first five weeks of the task force’s arrival. Of those 75 chases, 66 (or 88%) were initiated by THP. Of the 66 THP pursuits, 29 ended in a crash.
The chases often reached speeds in excess of 100 mph. Several were initiated following minor infractions such as driving with excessively tinted windows or the driver failing to wear a seat belt.
The events leading to high-speed pursuits were pulled from official court filings. But what can’t be analyzed is whether troopers acted within their agency’s stated policy before flipping on cruiser lights and hitting the gas.
When the task force arrived in late September, crime rates in Memphis and across the U.S. were trending downward. Supporters of the task force point to the continued decline in major violent crime categories as a clear result of the federal intervention.
But the stated success has come at a steep cost for some Memphis families. In the months since the five-week period reviewed by The Institute, at least three people have died in high-speed chases here.
Earlier this month, on Aug. 2, Memphis photographer Reggie Pederson was driving in the area of Park Avenue and Airways Boulevard when a car allegedly driven by Donell Alford, fleeing THP cruisers, sped through the intersection and struck Pederson’s car on the driver’s side, according to media reports.
Pederson was declared dead from his injuries at Regional One Hospital. Action News 5 reported a 6-year-old passenger who was in Alford’s car at the time of the crash had to be treated for a traumatic brain injury.
The potential risks and rewards of a law enforcement vehicle pursuits has been a discussion in Memphis government and among its residents in recent years.
In 2022, an uptick in drag racing and reckless driving on Memphis roadways prompted local GOP lawmakers like former state Rep. Brian Kelsey to push for legislation that would lessen Memphis police’s liability to bystanders like Pederson.
In 2023, Memphis police Chief C.J. Davis defended the department’s policy, which states officers can only pursue violent suspects after an officer gains approval from a supervisor.
Citing MPD data, Davis told City Council members that roughly 40% of MPD pursuits end in “catastrophic” crashes. Mitigating the risk to the public, Davis said, was at the forefront of MPD’s pursuit policy.
The differences between when MPD officers and THP troopers chase down speeding suspects are not fully understood. For now, only law enforcement data and court documents can begin to explain to what degree Memphians are impacted by different law enforcement agencies with different sets of rules.
“I’m grateful to the Reporters Committee for taking on this lawsuit and this important issue. It’s hard to imagine any duty of government that’s more consequential than law enforcement,’’ Perrusquia said.
“Police, sheriff’s deputies and highway patrol troopers have a tough and often dangerous job, but they also have awesome powers to take away people’s liberty and in some cases even kill them. Such power demands absolute transparency. Unfortunately, we’re not getting that from the highway patrol or the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. High-speed chases are inherently dangerous. In my view, the public has a right to know the policies and decision-making behind them.’’
Representatives for the Tennessee Department of Homeland Safety and Security and the Tennessee Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
