MINNEAPOLIS — Fleeing police is a high-stakes, high-risk crime that can put police on edge and civilians in danger.
It appears drivers are fleeing police more often these days, but the number of actual fleeing incidents and the factors of charging those incidents are up for debate.
State court records show the number of people charged with fleeing police in a motor vehicle throughout Minnesota shot up from 884 charges in 2013 to 2,056 charges in 2022, a 132 percent increase in ten years.
The vast majority of counties saw marked increases in fleeing charges, many have doubled or even quadrupled the number of charges over the last decade.
While most cases involve men, the number of women charged with fleeing has more than doubled since 2013.
White people account for the most charges, and the number of charges increased for every race documented by the court’s statistics.
Despite the spike in youth crime in recent years, the age group with the biggest jump in charges is 31 to 40-year-olds—up 94 percent.
Those are the charging data; the question is what is causing the spike?
“I can tell you there have literally been people saying you are not supposed to chase us,” said Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, who believes stricter no-chase policies by some law enforcement and lack of punishments by some prosecutors are factors.
“I do believe it's directly related to the consequences aren't harsh enough. The follow through on those consequences for felony level offenses are not harsh enough and we need some consistency with that,” said Witt.
New Chief Hennepin County Public Defender Mike Berger believes the numbers may not indicate more actual fleeing on the roads, but rather a strategic decision by prosecutors to charge fleeing more often when the evidence is gray.
“The public defense teams that I've managed over the years have seen a growth in the use of the charge,” said Berger. “I think that data seems to suggest more than a coincidence.”
Rachel Moran, a former public defender and current associate professor who teaches criminal law and policing courses at the University of St. Thomas, has taken on many fleeing cases. She says all these theories could be true, and without more data it’s difficult to say for sure what’s causing these ‘dramatic’ increases in charges.
“I do wonder if part of it could be more anxiety of getting pulled over by police,” said Moran.
Moran says the public often thinks most cases involve dangerous pursuits, but she has defended several cases involving slow-speed pursuits, which usually last only a couple of blocks. Where the charge of fleeing could be debated.
“I don't know, but there's more and more discussion about people—and sometimes people of color—feel unsafe when they get pulled over. I wonder if that has perhaps led to more people making the probably not smart decision to just not pull over.”
Despite the increase in fleeing in a vehicle changes, court data shows charges for fleeing police on foot have fluctuated but remained mostly stagnant over the past decade.
There's not enough data on a statewide scale that we are aware of to verify which of these factors are at play.
We reached out to several county attorneys for this story, but none were available to comment.
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