40 people died in Florida police pursuits in 4 years. A look at the data

The question of whether police should chase a driver often boils down to one main consideration: Does immediately catching the suspect outweigh the risk a pursuit poses to the public?

Most of the time, experts say, the answer is no.

Between 2020 and 2024, 40 people in Florida died as a result of police pursuits, according to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Seven of those fatalities occurred in the Tampa Bay region - the highest in the state. (The data does not include the Ybor City crash that killed four people lastNovember.)

Florida is far from the leader. In Georgia and Texas, for example, fatal pursuits climbed into the hundreds during that same time period, the data shows. And nationwide, the total number of people who were killed as a result of police pursuits during the four-year span was 2,364.

The only source of pursuit data comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which likely includes underreported numbers, said Geoff Alpert, a University of South Carolina professor who has conducted research on pursuits for more than 30 years.

"We've been asking for decades to get a national database specifically for pursuits," Alpert said. "We don't know exactly how many pursuits there are, we don't know how many crashes there are, and we certainly don't know how many injuries there are."

Alpert said crowdsourcing from news reports and social media can help piece together a better idea of how many people are seriously injured as a result of pursuits.

One example is Carlos Hernandez, who was mowing the grass outside a Dollar General in Pasco County when a woman fleeing sheriff's deputies in a stolen car veered off the road and slammed into the riding mower, propelling him hundreds of feet in the air. He sustained severe injuries and lives with post-traumatic dementia.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based nonprofit that recommends guidelines to law enforcement agencies, believes that updating pursuit policies can help prevent cases like Hernandez's.

"You have fatalities, and then you have situations like this that will affect the rest of their lives," he said. "Many departments have learned that having both restrictive policies and training is a win-win for everyone."

Wexler and Alpert helped author a 2023 report, commissioned by the Department of Justice, outliningwhen pursuits should take place.

Researchers found that the vast majority of pursuits stem from traffic or property crime offenses. The report suggests that police should only initiate a pursuit in cases ofviolent crimeor imminent threats.

Pursuit policies for the Pinellas and Hillsborough sheriff's offices largely mirror those guidelines. Pasco's policy, however, does not detail which offenses merit a pursuit. Instead, it instructs deputies to chase only if the danger to the public is "significantly less" during a pursuit than if the suspect remains at large.

Pasco's policy is what's known as a "judgmental policy," Alpert said, which leaves the choice up to the deputies.

"But cops want to be told what to do because they don't want to make these life-and-death decisions in a split second," he said.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which has jurisdiction on most public roads in the state, allows troopers to chase fleeing drivers for virtually any reason. The policy was loosened in 2023 after previously requiring permission from a supervisor to chase.

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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 1:25 PM.