A vehicle chase that began in Canon, Georgia ended with a suspect under arrest after ramming a police patrol car on a property and then crashing before deputies could catch up. Franklin County deputies said they assisted Canon police as the pursuit wound through town and onto a property containing a home and a chicken-house farm, where the fleeing driver struck one of the pursuing patrol vehicles before speeding off again.
According to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, deputies wrote that they assisted the Canon Police Department in a vehicle chase that began in Canon. The sheriff's office said the chase then continued onto the Burroughs Road property, where the suspect struck the patrol car and continued fleeing rather than stopping.
Chase Ends in a Crash on Rice Mill Road
The pursuit finally ended after the driver crashed on Rice Mill Road, at which point the suspect was taken into custody, the sheriff's office said. Deputies reported that all officers and deputies involved in the chase were uninjured, despite the collision with the patrol car earlier in the pursuit. The Georgia State Patrol is now investigating the crash, though the suspect's name and the charges they face had not been released as of the report.
Georgia's Troubled Pursuit Record
Incidents like the Canon chase are not unusual in a state where law enforcement pursuits have drawn increasing scrutiny. An analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that Georgia State Patrol troopers were involved in more than 6,700 pursuits between 2019 and 2023, with more than 3,400 of those chases resulting in crashes that left nearly 1,900 people injured and 63 dead. The same analysis of federal data found that Georgia had the highest death rate from police pursuits of any state between 2018 and 2022.
Much of that toll has been tied to the PIT maneuver, a tactic troopers used in more than 2,000 chases from 2019 through 2023, the AJC's investigation into high-speed PIT maneuvers found. Of the 66 deaths stemming from GSP pursuits during that same five-year period, 19 resulted directly from PIT maneuvers, according to the newspaper's reporting. The AJC also reported that Georgia State Patrol policy does not cap the speed at which a trooper can perform a PIT maneuver, nor does it require a supervisor to weigh in on critical decisions during a chase.
No Statewide Speed Limit on a Risky Tactic
That discretion extends beyond PIT maneuvers to the decision of whether to chase at all. A criminal justice professor told CBS News that Georgia State Patrol officers can pursue at their own discretion without needing supervisor approval first. CBS News also reported that Georgia State Patrol data showed at least 43 bystanders or passengers were killed during pursuits across the state between 2019 and 2021, underscoring how often people with no connection to a chase end up caught in its aftermath.
Georgia's pursuit rules stand out even among other states' policies. The AJC's review of 44 state police pursuit policies found that the Georgia State Patrol's rules were among the most permissive of those examined. The AJC's investigation also described a GSP cadet preparing for a PIT maneuver.
CBS News reported that Atlanta restricted chases within city limits to violent felonies only, required supervisor approval before a pursuit could continue, and banned PIT maneuvers in dense neighborhoods. Thursday's chase ended with a crash on Rice Mill Road and the suspect in custody while the Georgia State Patrol examines what went wrong.
