An Alabama Senate committee heard arguments for and against a bill on Wednesday to limit when law enforcement officers may engage in vehicular pursuits.
Senate Bill 120, sponsored by Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would create a standard for state, county and municipal law enforcement to follow when “developing and implementing vehicular pursuit policies.”
The bill would limit vehicular pursuits to be allowed only when an individual is suspected of having committed violent crimes or “any offense that creates an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to another individual.”
Under SB120, crimes that would allow police to engage in a vehicular pursuit are murder, burglary, kidnapping, human trafficking, rape, sodomy, sexual torture, domestic violence, arson, robbery, terrorism and aggravated child abuse.
While the Senate Judiciary Committee did not vote on whether to advance the bill to a floor vote, committee members heard statements from Orr and two additional proponents of the legislation, alongside five speakers opposed to SB120.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I think most of us are all supportive of law enforcement and the difficult job that they have to do,” Orr told the committee.
Orr explained that the bill, entitled the Tristan Hollis Memorial Act, was named in honor of a 17-year-old who was killed last September on Hartselle’s Main Street when his vehicle was struck by Archie Hale, a driver fleeing a police chase. The pursuit began after Hale was seen driving erratically on Interstate 65 South in Priceville, with the chase continuing down Highway 32 and eventually into downtown Hartselle.
Priceville Police Officer Garry Chapman, who initiated the pursuit that led to the collision which killed Hollis and injured three passengers in his car, was fired shortly after the incident for violating the city’s pursuit policy but subsequently rehired after a Priceville City Council appeal hearing.
Chapman, the son of reality television star Dog the Bounty Hunter, has since been sued by Hollis’ mother, Rachel Moore, who is seeking monetary compensation from the officer, the city of Priceville, Hale and Progressive Insurance Company, which insured the vehicle Hollis was in.
In January, Chapman also filed a suit against the Priceville Police Department and city officials, alleging he was wrongfully terminated for exposing misconduct within the department.
“When I looked into this issue, I began to see, for a lot of jurisdictions, now some of them, they have policies regarding police pursuit,” Orr said. “What this bill attempts to do is provide some guardrails when it comes to what’s the offense that we are going to allow pursuits in.”
“The decision-making should consider whether a chase would make the situation worse or better,” the senator continued. “For example, if a suspect begins driving more recklessly after police intervention, it is important to discontinue the pursuit.”
Orr cited that Alabama follows Georgia as the state with the second-highest rate of hot pursuit deaths per capita.
“Some of those [deaths] are gonna be the perpetrator, and quite frankly, if you want to run from the police, my sympathy is very limited in that case. But there are innocent people, like Tristan Hollis, that paid for such a pursuit with his life,” Orr added.
Moore spoke before the committee in favor of Orr’s legislation, arguing that the tragedy of her son’s death emphasized the need for stronger legal guidelines for vehicular pursuits.
“I am here today to speak on and bring awareness and accountability for the wrongful death of my son, and the injuries sustained to his three friends,” she said.
Moore argued that law enforcement should not have pursued the suspect down Main Street, “a street that has only a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit, filled with homes, pedestrians, restaurants and high traffic.”
“Anyone could have been seriously injured or lost their life that night. Unfortunately, it was Tristan and his friends,” said Moore.
“I never thought that I would be here standing here today speaking on behalf of my son’s death, asking for a law to pass in honor of him and his memory, so other families and victims do not have to live with this unbearable grief—to hold police officers of the state accountable for their actions to serve and protect, not seek and destroy,” she added.
Reginald McKenzie, whose 16-year-old grandson, Jaiden DeJarnett, died in a car crash following a high-speed chase with Decatur police in 2023, also spoke in favor of the bill.
McKenzie explained that his grandson, a Sparkman High School student and football player, who only had his license for two months prior to his death, was pursued by police while driving to get food late at night in Decatur, after police spotted him driving without his headlights on.
DeJarnett, who turned his lights on during the pursuit, was chased by law enforcement across three counties and killed when he drove across a railroad track at high speed, causing his car to go airborne, before losing control, crossing the center lane of traffic and hitting a tree.
“People say you shouldn’t run, and I say that too. I was stopped by the police at an early age, and I didn’t run, but they put the gun to my head, drug me out the car and then said it didn’t happen,” McKenzie said.
“Three counties, 50 minutes of a chase, 135 miles per hour, and the catch to this, he didn’t know where he was going. He was coming up on a railroad track, and they kept pushing him even faster, knowing that a quarter mile from that railroad track, there was a roadblock,” he continued.
“They knew that was a young man in that car. They had the tag number. They could have made it happen later,” McKenzie said. “They did not have to chase him to his death.”
DeJarnett’s family has brought a federal lawsuit against the city of Decatur, its former mayor, former police chief and two officers involved in the pursuit, including Mac Marquette, a former officer has also been charged with murder for the 2023 shooting death of Decatur resident Steve Perkins.
Chief Bill Partridge of Oxford spoke in opposition to Orr’s bill on behalf of the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police.
“While the intent of standardizing vehicle pursuits may be well-meaning, Senate Bill 120 would significantly hinder law enforcement’s ability to apprehend criminals and protect the public,” Partridge said.
“Once offenders understand that law enforcement is restricted from pursuing them for many offenses, compliance with traffic stops and lawful orders would dramatically decrease,” he continued. “Rather than reducing risks, Senate Bill 120 may unintentionally encourage flight.”
Alabama League of Municipalities Director of Government Affairs Baker Allen also spoke in opposition to the bill.
“Limitations on pursuit created by Senate Bill 120 could be less of a deterrent for criminals looking to flee law enforcement,” Allen said. “The uniform standard created by this bill could create a clearer benchmark for litigation, increasing municipal liability exposure, even when an officer is acting in good faith to protect the public.”
Additionally, Sheriff Heath Jackson of Escambia County, Sheriff Phil Simms of Marshall County and Sheriff Derrick Cunningham of Montgomery County all spoke in opposition to the legislation.
“You’re fixing to cripple law enforcement,” Jackson said. “We’ve had the talks of what we’re going to do in Montgomery to try and clean up Montgomery and our Birminghams but now we’re telling everybody in uniform, you know, don’t do your job. One of those tools we had that you could use, now we might not be able to use it anymore.”
Partridge, Jackson and Cunningham all urged those in favor of the bill to meet with law enforcement representatives to discuss procedures for chases and other solutions for improving police’s ability to act appropriately during pursuits.
“I hear from the friends in law enforcement that you want to sit down and talk. You know, this bill was filed January 13, almost a month ago, and I’ve only had one person approach me who said, ‘I really don’t like your bill,’” Orr remarked.
“Now I’ve heard from law enforcement officers around the state with, quite frankly, some very derogatory and insulting emails, and that’s okay. That’s part of the job we have here,” the senator continued. “But the door is open. I’m certainly willing to get a better product here, something that works for law enforcement and addresses this problem around the state.”
