new pursuit laws

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

This has all been driven by that incident a few months ago where an innocent motorist was killed when a Police car contravened a red TCL and t-boned her car, the Police were supposedly pursuing crims in a stolen Audi.

The catch is, the officers in the pursuing car did not have permission from VKI (Command) to engage in a pursuit. It had been asked for, but not granted at that point. The driver of the Police car (a Ford Territory incidentally) has been charged with dangerous driving causing death. It was only after this occurred that the howls of protest started to emerge from the Police union and other quarters about how we need legislation to protect officers from criminal or civil proceedings when in chases.

Personally, I think the idea of the legislation is rubbish, as the Criminal Code covers it anyway (acts in tort) and is not needed. The Police who are engaged in pursuits need to be mindful of the pursuits policy and adhere to it at all times, or face the consequences if it all goes pear shaped because you got a rush of blood to the head. If you don't have permission to engage in a pursuit, you don't pursue, the end. Personally, I think this is more of a training and policy issue than a legislative issue.

From the various media articles I saw and read, it was a case of the Police in the Territory spotting the stolen car, going after it and requesting permission to pursue, before permission was given they had crashed, all in the space of less than a minute. So they weren't chasing without permission, they just hadn't been given or denied permission.
Lets just wait for the Coroners inquest on this one before we go hanging people out to dry. Having said that, the officer has been charged because he went through a red light and fair enough too, they should have stopped and checked, but as I said, I'll wait for the Coroners finding on this.
You don't let a stolen car going flying past, Police do the speed limit waiting for a minute or so to be given permission, by then it's all over red rover, crook has disappeared into the sunset at mach1.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

[Dave3911]

Originally Posted by flappist

You are all missing the point.

Just because a police officer tries to chase a car but does not catch it does not automatically mean that the person driving the car was trying to evade him. It may just mean that the copper was caught in traffic and the driver was not and then the driver turned off while out of sight.

TOO MUCH TELEVISION......

Not all police chases are scenes from the Blues Brothers.......

In Victoria, what you describe wouldn't be classified as a Pursuit under the pursuit policy and would be a "long intercept". For it to be classifeid as a pursuit they have to be able to prove grounds that the person was trying to evade the police. I would assume WA have similar guidelines, otherwise their officers would be calling pursuit on the radio every time they stop a speeder on the freeway.

Anyone got a link to the proposed legislation? I bet it has a clear definition of what it means to evade and what the police have to prove in order to get up on a charge.

[STINKY NINJA]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

This has all been driven by that incident a few months ago where an innocent motorist was killed when a Police car contravened a red TCL and t-boned her car, the Police were supposedly pursuing crims in a stolen Audi.

The catch is, the officers in the pursuing car did not have permission from VKI (Command) to engage in a pursuit. It had been asked for, but not granted at that point. The driver of the Police car (a Ford Territory incidentally) has been charged with dangerous driving causing death. It was only after this occurred that the howls of protest started to emerge from the Police union and other quarters about how we need legislation to protect officers from criminal or civil proceedings when in chases.

Personally, I think the idea of the legislation is rubbish, as the Criminal Code covers it anyway (acts in tort) and is not needed. The Police who are engaged in pursuits need to be mindful of the pursuits policy and adhere to it at all times, or face the consequences if it all goes pear shaped because you got a rush of blood to the head. If you don't have permission to engage in a pursuit, you don't pursue, the end. Personally, I think this is more of a training and policy issue than a legislative issue.

I agree 100%