Arkansas Troopers Chased Less, But Pursuit Deaths Hit A 10-Year High

New data shows fewer police pursuits, rising PIT use, and a troubling fatality trend. Arkansas State Police chases have long been the subject of debate over their tactics. Now, new data reveals that while chases are dropping in the Natural State, deaths just hit a new high.

Despite this, the figure is likely lower than most would assume, and the data from the last decade paints a more complicated picture. In 2025, Arkansas State Police (ASP) troopers were involved in 432 pursuits, the lowest number since 2019 and a sharp drop from 553 the year before. However, fewer chases didn't mean fewer consequences.

Seven people died, making it the deadliest year for ASP pursuits in at least a decade. The contrast is jarring, though the full picture is more complicated than the numbers alone suggest. Data obtained by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette shows that from 2016 through the end of 2025, ASP logged 4,710 pursuits.

Across all of those incidents, 27 people died, and 774 were injured, including 91 law enforcement officers. 6 percent of chases resulted in a fatality. Roughly 16 percent resulted in an injury, and officers get hurt just under two times on average for every 100 chases.

Those figures may surprise readers who assume police chases routinely end in death. Statistically, they don’t. Most pursuits conclude without fatalities, and many end without serious injury at all.

However, statistics don't erase consequences... especially when ASP has pitted the wrong people and even some who were fully complying with the law. Nearly half of those killed last year, three out of seven, were passengers, not the drivers who chose to flee.

In several cases, those passengers were ejected during crashes following PIT maneuvers, a tactic ASP used in over half of the chases it engaged in. This highlights the point that the people paying the consequences of high-speed pursuits aren't just those who initiated them.