Police pursuit policy a matter of balance
There has been a lot of ongoing discussion about police pursuits in recent times, and I thought it might be useful to elaborate on my views on this matter.Police work is inherently a dangerous job, but our first priority must always be public safety.
Every day our officers must make snap second decisions about how to resolve potentially dangerous situations, and the single most dangerous thing they will do in their career is get behind the wheel of a car.
Sounds mundane, doesn’t it? But worldwide, more police and members of the public are killed ‘in police action’ due to car crashes than any other cause.
A recent study by Australian Institute of Criminology shows that more than half of all people killed in Australia in an interaction with police die as a result of police pursuits. And that is not just offenders. More than one third of those are the general public.
While I understand the frustration experienced by officers who see offenders flauting the road rules, the risks associated with pursuing them for minor traffic offences are simply too great. It is worth noting that the Queensland Police Union of Employees supported the implementation of the policy. I question the timing and nature of the comments now being made by spokesmen for the union in the lead up to union elections. This issue is too important to be used for political purposes.
You don’t have to look far into the past to see the tragic consequences for innocent bystanders in Queensland.
I have personally had to tell a father that his teenager died as a result of a police pursuit. I never want another one of our officers to have to go through that awful task.
The reality of our pursuit policy is that our officers can pursue if there is a significant public risk in letting the offenders go. This is rarely the case.
Overwhelmingly, these evade police incidents are young, inexperienced drivers who are either drunk, affected by drugs, or both. They have little regard for their own safety, and even less care for the safety of other road users. According to the AIC, nearly 90 percent of offenders who died in pursuit crashes are impaired.
We have to be the cool, responsible head in these situations, and understand that by pursuing these people, we are dramatically increasing the risk to you, to our officers, and to the offenders. Our first priority is always to public safety, and it must always be that way.
The good news is that we are getting better at catching these offenders. Increasingly, we are charging people after the event with evade police after the event, through following up on investigations. Take the example highlighted in the Courier Mail this morning. An 18-year-old Waterford West man was arrested one week after the incident, and charged with:
- 8x stealing
- 1x fail to stop motor vehicle
- 6x armed robbery
- 2x dangerous operation of motor vehicle
- 1x unlicenced driving
He was remanded in custody to appear again in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on 20 November.
The Government recently introduced mandatory minimum sentences for evade police, and the first offenders have already been sentenced under this legislation.
This is the start of the solution to this matter. By bringing these offenders to justice, and imposing heavy penalties, these acts of stupidity will be deterred in the safest way possible for everybody.
I will be reviewing the pursuit policy over the next 12 months, however we must always strive to get the balance right between public safety and deterrence.
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