South Carolina police, battling critics’ charges of favoritism, soon will change the way they investigate law enforcement chases that lead to wrecks.

The Highway Patrol now will require an outside agency to investigate wrecks that result when troopers chase suspects, an internal memo shows.

And sheriffs are likely to follow the patrol’s lead and also require independent investigations of wrecks involving local and county police, said S.C. Sheriffs’ Association director Jeff Moore.

The association’s board on Wednesday asked state lawmakers to clarify language in the 1994 law, which governs who investigates such crashes.

In a September article in The State, critics complained the law was being misinterpreted. Misuse of the law allowed troopers and local police to investigate many of their own crashes, they said.

That interpretation had allowed Forest Acres police, for example, to investigate their own conduct in a May 27 chase that ended in the death of Beverly Meyers, a passenger in a car that was struck by a car being driven by a suspect who was fleeing police.

The patrol’s new policy means troopers must call independent investigators from sheriffs’ departments for wrecks resulting from patrol chases — even when there is no impact with a cruiser.

Until an Oct. 7 memo from patrol commander Col. Russell Roark, troopers could investigate themselves as long as their cruisers did not strike another car or property.

Roark said in a Sept. 14 news article that the 9-year-old law did not apply unless there was direct contact by a law enforcement vehicle. Most sheriffs shared that view, Moore said, leaving untold numbers of wrecks improperly investigated.

The law was designed to protect the public from biased investigations or the appearance of bias, said Larry Richter, who wrote the law when he was a state senator.

Violating the 1994 law is considered misconduct, and officers can be removed from office.

Richter, other legislators and four opinions by the state Attorney General said the way law enforcement had been interpreting the law was wrong.

The patrol’s new policy does not address wrecks involving local law enforcement agencies.

But the Sheriffs’ Association endorsement to change the law and the patrol’s new policy are likely to result in new practices across the state, Moore said.

Roark said this week his directive is not a change. “It’s more of a reissuing of what we’ve been doing.”

But his Oct. 7 directive to patrol leaders around the state called for a “change in the manner in which we investigate” wrecks resulting from police chases.

A second memo, dated Oct. 14 — a day after The State asked about the new policy — removed the word “change” and said the directive was an effort “to remind troopers of the manner in which we investigate collisions.”

The State learned of the two memos this week.

Roark’s memo “clearly modifies” what the patrol has been doing, Richter said Wednesday.

“Maybe the reminder is reminding the patrol that the patrol policy is now changed,” he said.

The change brings the patrol in line with the spirit of the law, said Richter, a former judge and now a Charleston attorney.

Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, also has criticized how the patrol interpreted the law he helped write.

“The ordinary citizen like myself would say, ‘Gee, that looks like a change.’”

What’s important, he said, is that now “they’ve got it right.”

Leventis and Richter said they hope all police agencies do as the patrol has done.

If the new policy had been in effect, the Forest Acres Police Department would not be investigating its own conduct in the May 27 chase that resulted in Meyers’ death.

Meyers, 50, was killed when a Pontiac ran a stop sign while police chased the driver, a suspected check counterfeiter.

The lawyer for her estate could not be reached Wednesday.

Forest Acres Chief Gene Sealy also could not be reached. Mayor Frank Brunson said he doubted the patrol’s policy change would affect the Meyers investigation.

The dispute over interpretation of the law comes down to the meaning of the word, “involved.” The statute mandates independent investigations when a law enforcement vehicle is “involved in a traffic collision.”

The patrol had read that to mean the police vehicle had to hit another object. “It’s always been our opinion that unless there’s contact between the officer’s vehicle and the violator’s vehicle, then we’re not bound by the statute,” Roark said in the Sept. 14 State article.

Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.