One of three things will generally happen when you flee from pursuing police officers in a vehicle: (1) You will get away for the time being, but not for long; (2) you will be caught on scene; or (3) your flight will end in a wreck that severely injures or kills you, your passengers, or someone else who didn’t deserve it out on the streets. Sure, there is a slim chance that you may be among the tiny percentage of those who actually get away and never get caught, but you should understand that today’s technology makes it very likely that even if you do elude immediate capture, the police will eventually track you down. With so many cameras and the range of police radio, fleeing from police in a vehicle is simply a high-risk decision that is unlikely to yield a lasting reward, and new technologies are being implemented every day that continue to further shrink the possibilities of successfully eluding police. But when the blue lights flash, each of us has a brief moment in which to decide to pull over or to run.

Georgia Statute § 40-6-395 (see the italicized section below the full article) mandates that essentially any defendant convicted of fleeing from an officer in a vehicle will be required to serve a MANDATORY minimum sentence of one year in prison (but up to five years), which cannot be waived, suspended, or probated. The one year of prison also cannot be run concurrently (served at the same time) as any sentence received for other charges, which means that fleeing police in a vehicle adds a year of incarceration to any other punishment automatically, and the charge generally cannot be reduced. Additionally, a $5,000 fine can be imposed.

CRM Law, LLC has seen countless defendants who would otherwise not have faced incarceration but for the decision to flee from police in a vehicle, rather than stopping and dealing with what would have been a less serious legal problem. Consider just a few anecdotes: (1) a man who fled from police because he thought he had a warrant; it turned out he did not have a warrant and would have only received a $15 ticket for a seat belt violation had he just pulled over, but instead he wrecked his vehicle and faced a period of incarceration; (2) a pair of co-defendants who were ultimately acquitted at jury trial for charges alleging burglary and aggravated assault for a stabbing but served five years anyway because they were caught on scene after fleeing from police in a vehicle; (3) same as the previous scenario except the under-lying charges were multiple armed robberies for which the defendant was acquitted at trial on multiple counts, but the court took the entire proverbial pound of flesh at sentencing by running all fleeing charges (including reckless driving and others) consecutive so that defendant ended up serving substantial time even though he was acquitted on all major charges; and (4) numerous instances where a defendant fled from police in a vehicle because drugs were in the car only to resolve their respective cases so that the drug charges would have carried only probation but the fleeing charge required prison time. The list of potential examples could stretch much further. That said, a person may flee from police for a number of reasons, and the attorneys at the CRM LAW firm, are ready to defend the many reasons. However, citizens should understand that fleeing from police does complicate any criminal case, including to the extent that a jury may subconsciously or even overtly hold it against a defendant at trial when guilt or innocence is a close call for them.

In response to any traffic stop, CRM Law, LLC recommends pulling to the side of the road as soon as is safe to do so. Every thing that follows is a judgement call that only you, as the driver, can really make, but once stopped, we generally recommend considering each of the following: (1) Lower the volume of the car stereo; (2) If the weather conditions make it reasonable, and especially if the car windows are tinted, consider lowering the car windows so that officers can see into the vehicle easier, perhaps lowering their level of anxiety; (3) Stay calm and courteous, keep hands visible on the wheel of the vehicle; (4) Do exit the vehicle if instructed to do so, but only if instructed to do so; (5) Provide correct identification (failure to do so will result in additional charges); (6) do not admit to any violation of law; (7) Your decision to refuse all field sobriety (and blood and breath) tests should be dependent on the specific jurisdiction you are pulled over in, your prior history of violations, and extenuating circumstances, but be aware that you should not generally volunteer additional evidence to be used against you in court; (8) Do not consent to any police searches of your vehicle because you do not have to, and you should make the police rely on probable cause to justify any search, which can be challenged in court; (9) make no statements before or after arrest (voluntary statements by defendants are almost always the most difficult piece of evidence for attorneys to deal with, even if you think you are doing the best job ever of explaining everything away); and (10) assert your right to an attorney and contact CRM Law at 912-376-7901.