Arkansas State Police defend PIT maneuvers as cases rise
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG Investigators sat down with Arkansas State Police to weigh the balance between frightening chases, getting bad guys off the road, and who gets caught in the middle.
If you see blue lights in your rearview mirror, you may immediately pull over, but some drivers don’t.
What happens next in some cases can be deadly. From chases to police PIT maneuvers, you can see it all for yourself as YouTube videos are popping up.
When Arkansas State Police are hot on the trail of a suspect, they may pull what is called a PIT maneuver, a Precision Immobilization Technique, also known as a TVI or Tactical Vehicle Intervention.
‘He is going to kill somebody.’ High-speed police chase video draws criticism from expert
Col. Mike Hagar, head of ASP, describes the maneuver as a “linear movement that causes the suspect vehicle to rotate and come to a stop.”
“It’s extreme. The danger to the suspect is extreme. The danger to the trooper is extreme,” said Hagar.
Plenty of people are now getting a close look at how these pursuits play out. YouTube is home to more and more videos showing the action and the ultimate consequences.
“If you have a video that shows the consequences for running from the police, I feel as though that may be a deterrent,” said James Bozeman, who runs a YouTube channel called Natural State Transparency.
He says the videos, from state trooper car cameras and obtained through Freedom of Information requests, show what happens in real-time, and also when something goes wrong.
“They have made it clear that if you flee officers or a trooper in Arkansas and the Arkansas State Police gets involved, it will result in you potentially being PIT’ed or TVI’d out at excessive speeds, and you know there will be consequences for that. You may lose your vehicle. You may lose your health or your life,” said Bozeman.
In West Memphis last December, a driver died after his car careened over an embankment off I-40. State Police say he was driving 140 mph as the trooper was preparing to perform a TVI. The driver suddenly applied brakes causing a collision.
Man dead after police chase on I-40 in Arkansas
In another case, troopers say Demarcus Clark was fleeing from a traffic stop on Interstate 40 last July. The trooper used a TVI. Clark’s vehicle collided with the trooper’s, injuring the officer and killing Clark.
One chase in Forest City ended with an Arkansas State Trooper performing a PIT maneuver on the wrong car. That trooper ended up retiring.
Arkansas state trooper resigns after performing PIT maneuver on wrong vehicle
“There are examples out there where, unfortunately, troopers rushed to do a TVI, only to find out that was the wrong vehicle,” said Bozeman.
Hager says in those cases, they go back to training and retraining.
“When our guys make mistakes, we are gonna learn from it. We are gonna hold them accountable,” Hagar said.
Lt. Col. Mike Kennedy is in charge of training for Arkansas State Police. He says all troopers get 84 hours of training on vehicle operations and pursuit driving.
“It’s absolutely not safe for our troopers to perform these techniques. But they’ve sworn oath to protect the public. So they put themselves between the public and the fleeing suspect,” said Kennedy. “You’re attempting to make it spin out. And most of the time during the spin, the suspect vehicle will stall out.”
A pregnant woman whose car was rolled by an Arkansas Trooper is now suing for negligence and excessive force.
Nicole Harper says she put on her flashers and was looking for a safe place to pull over. The officer says she was fleeing.
“There was a less dangerous and more safe avenue that could have been taken before flipping her vehicle and making it bounce off a concrete barrier going 60 miles an hour,” said Andrew Norwood, Harper’s lawyer.
“There’s a lot that’s talked about in our training about site selection. There are other factors that the troopers will consider to terminate or self-terminate a pursuit,” said Hagar.
This includes not pursuing into oncoming traffic if they can not keep up with the vehicle, and if the driver is driving recklessly and innocent bystanders are put in danger.
In 2016, there were 32 PIT maneuvers or TVIs performed by Arkansas State Police. In 2023 there were 251. The ASP says their troopers have also self-terminated pursuits or pulled off 654 times since 2016.
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“The idea that, you know, we’re just being cowboys, and we’re going to chase them until, you know, this thing concludes, that’s not true,” said Hagar.
He says in more than 3,800 pursuits in eight years, no innocent civilian has died or was seriously hurt, crediting training and officers pulling off of pursuits.
We asked for TVI numbers in Tennessee and Mississippi, and are still waiting on those. But in Tennessee, we are told, TVIs are not common and typically are only used in deadly force cases.
“It is widely known in many circles that if somebody can flee Arkansas law enforcement and get across the (interstate) 40 or 55 bridge into Memphis if they make it to Shelby County, they’re good. That happens. Yeah, I have examples of it,” said Bozeman.
Hargar says that if the suspect crosses the river bridge and goes into Tennessee, they have the right to continue the pursuit, which in most cases, they do.
“We’re constantly on the lookout for ways to make these situations safer. But at the end of the day, the way to make it safer is to stop running, you know, and that’s our message to the public is just stop running. It’s absolutely not worth it,” said Hagar.
The Arkansas State Police say they have a strategic campaign underway, urging drivers not to flee and pull over when an officer gets behind them. They say sitting down with WREG was part of their effort to get the word out.
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