Atlanta City Council to vote on urging limits to GSP pursuit chases

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – On Monday, Atlanta city leaders could send a strong message to the state when they vote on a resolution requesting that Georgia State Patrol change its pursuit polices in the city.

Changing Georgia State Patrol pursuit policies is a goal of the Atlanta City Council. The council will vote on changes to GSP chases, since the council cannot require the state to do so.

“This is about public safety and about saving lives,” said Devin Barrington-Ward, the spokesperson for the National Police Accountability Project.

The urged changes include restricting pursuits in high-density areas of Atlanta, requiring a supervisor to pre-approve pursuits and limiting pursuits to violent felony offenses.

The resolution also calls on Atlanta police to review its policies on assisting GSP.

From 2001 to 2021, 36% of deadly pursuits nationwide killed an innocent person, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“We are asking for a pursuit policy that mirrors that of the city of Atlanta. My hope is they won’t see this as some sort of radical push to be anti-police, but that this is a push to increase public safety on our roads,” Barrington-Ward said.

This April, 19-year-old Cooper Schoenke died when GSP chased Faduma Mohamed from I-20 to Little Five Points. GSP said she ran a red light, striking and killing Schoenke in his car.

In April, a Chick-Fil-A robbery led police on a chase in Buckhead. Officials said it ended when the driver ran a red light and crashed into 26-year-old driver Richard Wells, killing him.

In April 2024, GSP said they chased a driver from I-285 to Campbellton Road, where that driver ran a red light. The driver’s car hit and killed 43-year-old Tamara Taylor.

“These aren’t scenes from the Fast and Furious, or Dukes of Hazzard, or video games like Need for Speed, or Grand Theft Auto, these are people’s lives here and when someone dies here, they don’t come back,” Barrington-Ward said.

The city council meeting will be on Monday at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall in downtown Atlanta.

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