The deaths of innocent bystanders connected to high-speed police chases, such as the one in Augusta last week, have police agencies across the nation re-examining pursuit policies.

Last week, Laura Felder, 42, was killed when the car in which she was a passenger was struck by another vehicle fleeing police in a high-speed chase, authorities said.

Last year, 404 people were killed during such chases -- the highest number since 1982, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Ms. Felder died, police said, after a Chevy Blazer driven by Jamie Ray Clark struck her vehicle. Mr. Clark, who was being chased by Richmond County sheriff's Deputy Anthony Gregory, had fled after being stopped for running a traffic light in the 1200 block of Broad Street.

Changing pursuit policy is a decision each department has to make, and when the public is harmed during a chase, it's one they may need to re-examine, according to Dr. Frank Rivara, of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle, Wash., and coauthor of the study, "Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths Related to Police Pursuits in the United States."

The study, completed in 2004, examined nine years of National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration statistics and found that in many cases, innocent bystanders make up a significant portion of those injured during police pursuits. From 1994 to 2002, there were more than 3,000 fatalities from crashes related to police pursuits -- 1,088 of which were people not in the fleeing vehicle.

"I think it comes down to a societal cost effectiveness," Dr. Rivara said. "Does the risk to the citizens of the community justify the permission by police to do chases and are there ways for making sure these chases are not done for non-violent criminals?"

Sheriff Ronnie Strength maintains that his officers need the ability to pursue suspects, especially in situations like those Deputy Gregory faced.

But several Southeastern police departments have adopted strict vehicular pursuit policies that make it tougher for officers to hit the gas once the bad guy flees.

Col. Jennifer Kindall, of the Spartanburg Public Safety Department, said their decision to limit police pursuits was in direct response to the number of pursuit deaths across the nation.

Officers at the Peachtree City Police Department, southwest of Atlanta, may only initiate pursuit "in those situations when failure to do so would constitute the likelihood of imminent threat of serious bodily harm to the officer(s) or others," according to the department's standard operating procedure. And in Macon, Bibb County Sheriff's Lt. George Meadows said he believes departments across the nation are looking for alternatives to the classic high-speed chase..

Still, these departments are the exception to the norm.

Sheriff Strength points out that most departments across the nation are hesitant to place these kind of restrictions of their officers.

"These things, as much as we hate them, they do happen and nothing we say can change it once it has happened," Sheriff Strength said.