Pursuits cost SC taxpayers millions of dollars each year in insurance claims

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Police pursuits have already cost the state of South Carolina millions of dollars.

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WIS Investigates found over the past five years the South Carolina Insurance Reserve Fund (IRF) paid more than $13.5 million in insurance claims for police chases.

This is just a glimpse of the true cost of pursuits, because that fund only covers the State Law Enforcement Division, South Carolina Highway Patrol, and law enforcement agencies in less than half of the state’s 46 counties.

The fund covers less than half of South Carolina towns and cities.

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The Municipal Association of South Carolina has an insurance trust and risk financing fund. The claims aren’t classified as “police pursuit” or “police chase.”

A search of news reports and court records shows several wrongful death claims filed through MASC were connected to a police pursuit.

Towns, cities and counties that are not insured through the IRF or the municipal association may have their own insurance, and data for each of those areas is not as readily available.

WIS Investigates requested insurance claim payments for Richland County from 2021 through 2024.

The county ombudsman’s office, which handles records requests made under the South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act, said WIS Investigates would need to pay $633.15 for the county furnish the records.

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South Carolina law allows public bodies to charge a fee for public records, but the law says they must be “reasonable.”

The law says, “reasonable fees not to exceed the actual cost of the search, retrieval, and redaction of records.”

WIS Investigates sent the same records request for insurance claim payments to the city of Columbia. The city attorney’s office provided the records at no charge.

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