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2010/06: Should there be a ban on Australian police conducting high speed pursuits?
2010/06: Should there be a ban on Australian police conducting high speed pursuits?
What they said... 'The police car is the most dangerous weapon in the police's arsenal'
Comment made by the father of a 21-year-old university student, killed as a bystander during a police pursuit in Canberra in 2005
'The public want us to go out there and be strong and be courageous and do the job that we are paid to do'
New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione
The issue at a glance
On March 20, 2010, four people died in Canberra after a police pursuit. It is claimed that police had called off the chase minutes before the crash. The driver of the car being pursued is said to have gone through a red light at over 100 kilometres an hour and then ran into the side of a car carrying a four-month-old baby boy and his parents. The child and his parents were killed. The driver of the stolen car died shortly afterwards, while his teenage passenger remains in a serious condition in hospital.
New South Wales police had been pursuing the car from Queanbeyan south-east of the capital before the accident.
After the crash, the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties called for a moratorium on police chases. The mother of Clea Rose, a young Canberra university student who was killed during a police chase five years ago, has also claimed that this recent crash is further evidence that pursuits should be wound back.
Police have dismissed such calls as 'unrealistic' and consider it premature to place blame on the police officers involved.
Background
(The following is an edited version of the Wikipedia entry titled, 'Car Chase'. The full text of this entry can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_chase)
Car chases occur when a criminal attempts to use a vehicle to escape from law enforcement attempting to arrest them. The crime committed may be as serious as murder, or lesser crime such as a traffic infraction.
When the criminals realise they have been spotted by law enforcement, they attempt to lose their pursuers by driving away, sometimes at high speed. In 2002, 700 pursuits were reported in the city of Los Angeles.
Police use a number of techniques to end chases, from pleading with the driver to more forceful methods such as spike strips.
The February 2005 Macquarie Fields riots occurred in Sydney, Australia after a local driver crashed a stolen vehicle into a tree, killing his two passengers following a high-speed police pursuit. The death of university student Clea Rose following a police chase in Canberra sparked major recriminations over police pursuit policies.
Reality television has combined with the car chase genre in a number of television shows and specials featuring real footage, mostly taken from police cruisers and law enforcement or media helicopters of actual criminals fleeing from police.
Risks and legal considerations
High-speed car chases are recognised as a road safety problem, as vehicles not involved in the pursuit may be hit by the criminal, who will often violate a number of traffic laws in their attempt to escape, or by the pursuing police cars. In the UK, it is estimated that 40 people a year are killed in road traffic incidents involving police, most as a result of a police pursuit.
Kristie's Law is a proposed California law that would restrict immunity for damage (including injuries or deaths) caused by high-speed pursuits, where law enforcement agencies have established, but not followed, written pursuit policies.
In most common law jurisdictions, the fireman's rule prevents police officers injured in such pursuits from filing civil lawsuits for monetary damages against the fleeing criminals, because such injuries are supposed to be an inherent risk of the job.
Internet information
On December 10, 2003, ABC's National Radio AM current affairs program carried a report titled, 'Study shows danger of high speed police chases'. The report gave information on the findings of a study conducted by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission on the hazards involved in high speed police pursuits. The full text of the report can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s1006996.htm
On November 13, 2004, The Sydney Morning Herald published an opinion piece titled, 'All pumped up'. The piece was purportedly written by a former New South Wales police officer, revealing the shortcomings in the manner in which New South Wales police conduct high speed chases. The full text of the piece can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/news/Police-Pursuits/All-pumped-up/2004/11/12/1100227581212.html
On March 22, 2010, the ABC printed a report on the opposition of the ACT police minister to the imposition of a ban on high speed police pursuits. The full text of this report can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/22/2852118.htm
On March 27, 2010, The Daily Liberal published an opinion piece by radio talk back host, Leo de Kroo. De Kroo argues that given the driving record and criminal history of the young driver in the recent Canberra fatal car crash he should not have been out of prison on remand. The full text of this opinion piece can be found at http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/blogs/leo-de-kroo/highspeed-chases-are-no-win-situations/1787561.aspx
On April 1, 2010, Civil Liberties Australia published a report titled, 'Coroner says police should cut chases'. The report dealt with a recent recommendation of the Queensland coroner that police not pursue drunk or drug-effected drivers at high speed. The full text of the report can be found at http://www.cla.asn.au/0805/index.php/articles/2010/coroner-says-police-should-cut-chases
Arguments against a ban on high speed police pursuits
1. A ban on high speed police pursuits would allow criminals to act without fear of being apprehended.
It has been claimed that if Australian police were not able to conduct high speed pursuits that would signal to criminals that they could commit offences without fear of arrest.
New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, has indicated that a ban on high speed pursuits would be 'unrealistic' as it would send the message to criminals that if they made their getaway at speed the police would not be able to apprehend them.
Commissioner Scipione stated, '...you cannot let ... anyone go out there and think, "Well, if I just go a little bit faster I'll get into a pursuit, police are going to drop off and therefore I've got immunity almost from being arrested or from somebody trying to stop me committing a crime".'
In an opinion piece published in The Punch on March 23, 2010, Paul Colgan asked, 'Is it reasonable to have a policy that says when cops see a speeding vehicle in the middle of the night, they should do nothing?'
The New South Wales Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, has also indicated that it would be a mistake to abandon police pursuits. Mr Hatzistergos has stated, 'It almost invites people to flee and to avoid the police after potentially having committed very serious crimes.'
Similarly, in 2007, referring specifically to car thefts, Australian Federal Police Association chief executive, Jim Torr, claimed it would be inappropriate to let car thieves believe they could steal without risk of apprehension. Mr Torr stated, 'They'll say, "Let's pinch a car and do burn-outs, we've got indemnity".' Mr Torr went on to claim, 'Canberra is the car-theft capital of Australia.' He suggested that a no pursuit policy would simply increase the number of cars stolen in the Australian Capital Territory.
2. The primary responsibility for any death or injury lies with the fleeing suspect
It has been claimed that it is unreasonable to blame police for harm that occurs as a result of a high speed pursuit. According to this line of argument, the primary responsibility resides with the person who is attempting to escape the police.
In an opinion piece published in The Punch on March 23, 2010, Paul Colgan wrote that families were understandably reluctant to blame dead relatives for accidents they had caused and that there was a general reluctance on the part of both the media and the police to hold publicly accountable those killed in accidents they caused. Colgan argues that this tendency has created a situation where pursuing police are held responsible for deaths and casualties caused by those they were pursuing.
Colgan states, 'The matter of the blame that should lie with him [the driver of the vehicle that caused a fatal accident] has been lost, partly because of the unspoken rule in the debate on road fatalities which is "never to speak ill of the dead".
It's the same unspoken rule that stops police declaring alcohol was involved when a car runs off the road and into a wall late at night when there were no other cars around. Bad enough that a family has lost someone - don't impugn the memory of the deceased by declaring publicly they had decided to drink and drive.'
Defenders of current police pursuit policies argue that the blame for any accident which occurs should lie with those trying to escape apprehension, not with the police officers trying to make an arrest.
3. Harsher penalties are required to discourage criminals from fleeing the police
It has been claimed that rather than prohibiting police from pursuing criminals, the law should make it less attractive from offenders to try to escape. Some police argue that harsher penalties need to be put in place to prevent felons from attempting to leave the scene of a crime at speed.
Senior New South Wales highway patrol officers have claimed that a summary offence introduced in 2006, which set a maximum one-year jail term for people who refused to stop cars upon police direction, was 'hopelessly inadequate'.
One senior New South Wales officer said officers wanted it to be an indictable criminal offence to flee police in a motor vehicle as there needed to be a strong deterrent. After fatal crashes offenders can be charged with aggravated dangerous driving causing death, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years' jail. But there is no more minor penalty for those who escape a crime in a dangerous manner.
New South Wales Opposition spokesman, Michael Gallacher, has stated, 'The majority of police pursuits were triggered by the driver's reluctance to be picked up for relatively minor traffic matters but when caught, they were only charged with the original offence... NSW law needs to be tidied up and it needs to be toughened up. There needs to be certainty for the police and ... certainty for the courts.'
On February 2, 2010, it was announced that criminals in New South Wales who lead police on high-speed chases would face jail sentences of three years and up to five years for repeat offences, regardless of whether anyone was hurt.
4. Police only pursue as a last resort
It has been claimed that police pursue offenders judiciously and only when there is no other reasonable course open to them. As proof of this it has been noted that in a number of states the incidence of police pursuits has declined.
New South Wales Police figures reveal that the number of police pursuits has fallen from 2227 in 2004 to 1803 in 2009. In 2006 stricter guidelines stated that officers should not give chase if they recognised the car or the driver and could safely pick them up later.
Pursuit guidelines in New South Wales were first overhauled after a 1994 inquiry by the Government's Staysafe committee which led to video cameras being installed in all highway patrol cars. The State traffic commander Assistant Commissioner John Hartley has claimed that pursuits were a last resort for New South Wales police.
In Victoria, under Rule 305 of the Road Rules Act, police and emergency vehicles are exempt from speed limits only if they are engaged in situations such as the pursuit of a vehicle or attending urgent calls for assistance.
In 2001, police vehicles were caught speeding 1171 times by traffic cameras across the state. After police investigations, 1051 were found to be legitimately covered by the legislation. In the remaining 120 incidents all officers were issued with infringement notices.
Victoria Police have developed a "trigger point" system that includes a priority system depending on the severity of a suspected crime. Police chasing a bank robber have more flexibility than police chasing the driver of a suspected stolen car.
Under Victorian guidelines a pursuit should be undertaken only as a last resort when there is no other means of apprehension and when the seriousness of the offence appears to warrant this action.
The pursuit is to be terminated when the potential danger outweighs the need to apprehend. When making this decision consideration is to be given to the gravity of the original offence, the age and competence of the driver being pursued and the prevailing weather and traffic conditions.
The decision to terminate the pursuit can be made by either the officer controlling the pursuit or the officer conducting it.
5. There are operational procedures in place and police training given to protect the community and those being pursued
In New South Wales statewide rules governing high-speed pursuits mean they can be called off for a variety of reasons, including traffic conditions, speed, driving experience of police and the manner of driving of the car being pursued.
In Victoria, the decision to abort a pursuit is left to operational police. Once a chase is declared, a sergeant or senior sergeant in the area is designated the pursuit controller or supervisor. The radio channel is cleared and the chase can be called off if either the police driver or pursuit controller considers it too dangerous. Police are told to balance the need for apprehension against the risk to the community.
Before a member of Victoria Police can drive a police vehicle, they must hold the appropriate Departmental Driving Authority (in addition to a valid Victorian driver's licence). The training and testing of members for these authorities is the job of the Motor Driving School (MDS).
MDS runs a number of different driving courses including:
Standard Operational Car Course
Advanced Driving Course
Four Wheel Drive Course
The instructors are all police members, and all are trained in various instructional techniques and are required to complete the same course that civilian driving instructors undertake. They must also understand the emergency vehicle provisions as they apply to police and Urgent Duty Driving. They need to understand the risks faced by operational members on the roads. They are all highly skilled drivers and many are recreational motor racing drivers.
All police officers must complete the standard operational car course. The advanced driving course must be completed by all officers who wish to act as traffic management unit members.
In Queensland, from January 1, 2008, substantial amendments were made to "police pursuit" rules and guidelines by the introduction of the Safe Driving Policy. This policy involved a major overhaul of the previous arrangements and included a new decision making framework. The new policy included a detailed risk assessment.
Arguments supporting a ban on high speed police pursuits
1. High speed police pursuits have resulted in an unacceptable number of deaths
It has been claimed that police pursuits are causing unacceptable risks in all Australian states. Civil Liberties Australia has supplied the following statistics.
On average, more than two people die (and 70 are injured) every year in Queensland in car chases where police are involved. In that state, there is approximately one police chase a day, with one in four resulting in a crash. In the ten years 2000 - 2009, 22 people died and 689 people were injured during or following a police pursuit in Queensland.
In the ACT, with a population of just over 300,000, over the past five years the average has been one death a year. There are about two car chases a week, according to the Cameron Report of July 2007, and they last 4 minutes 13 seconds each, on average.
In New South Wales, police engage in car chases about 2000 times a year. Since 1994, more than 60 people have died at a rate of about four a year for that state.
At one stage in Victoria, before its chase policy was revised, 24 people had died in 16 incidents across 26 months from July 2001 to September 2003.
It has been claimed that police pursuits actually cause casualties and deaths. The Queensland coroner, Michael Barnes, has stated in relation to cases he has looked at that it was the decision of police to pursue that caused most of the chased drivers to flee at high speed.
In eight of the ten cases the coroner has recently investigated, the pursued vehicle was being driven in a normal, safe manner when an attempt was made to intercept it. In each case, the driver then sped off and the police followed. A death or deaths occurred as a result of the manner in which the pursued vehicle was driven.
In 2003, Dr Paul Mazerolle, the research director of Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission, stated, 'The numbers from our data shows that roughly 30 per cent of the people are intoxicated and so that really leads to the issue of do we want intoxicated drivers being chased by the police? Perhaps the only thing more dangerous than a drunk driver on a road is a drunk driver being pursued by the police.'
It has also been noted that high speed pursuits place the lives of police at risk. In the twentieth century, cars killed 99 New South W ales police officers. Gunshot wounds killed 49.
According to a 2003 study from Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission 1 in 10 of the state's high speed pursuits ends with someone injured or dead, which is more than the number killed or injured by police firearms in Australia.
2. Police pursuits are often not justified in terms of the public good
It has been claimed that police pursuits are high risk operations which are often undertaken for inadequate reasons. According to this line of argument, it is inappropriate to risk lives in order to apprehend those who have committed relatively minor offences and who, were they not being pursued, would not pose a significant risk to public safety. Thus, it is argued, traffic offences and joy-ride car thefts should not generally lead to high speed pursuits. However, critics of police pursuit practices claim that it is for just such relatively minor offences that many high speed chases occur.
In New South Wales, 49 people were killed between 1990 and 2003 either during or immediately after a police pursuit. Eight of those killed were innocent bystanders. John Cadogan, of the drivers' advice Internet site Caradvice, has claimed that the remaining 41 were on the run, 'mostly chased after simple traffic offences, often young drivers who make a single bad decision under extreme pressure'.
Mr Cadogan went on to claim, 'There were 2086 police pursuits in NSW during 2005/2006, the latest year in which the NSW Police's Annual Report made pursuit statistics public. That's 40 each week on average; more than six a day. Six per cent of these chaotic, unpredictable events ends in a crash, and only nine per cent are initiated because the driver is suspected of a criminal offence [involving injury to persons]. The overwhelming majority - 78 per cent - kick off because of a suspected traffic offence or stolen vehicle.'
It has further been claimed that police should be able to apprehend those who have committed traffic offences at their homes, rather than pursuing them immediately after the event. John Cadogan has stated, 'The alternative to pursuit is, in the case of traffic matters, obviously, for police to take the a note of the offending vehicle's number plate... and follow up by knocking on the door later - especially in these days of in-car Highway Patrol video. This, you'd think, would make real sense for minor traffic offences.'
3. High speed pursuits are an inefficient means of trying to apprehend offenders
It has been claimed that high speed pursuits are not an effective means of apprehending a suspect as a majority of those pursued either escape or the case to catch them is called off.
John Cadogan, of the drivers' advice Internet site Caradvice, has asked in relation to New South Wales pursuit statistics, 'What happens to those who flee? Thirty-seven per cent get away with it because the police terminate the pursuit or the pursuing driver discontinues the pursuit...in 18 per cent of pursuits the fleeing driver out-runs the cops. In 13 per cent of pursuits the driver stops, but the occupants of the offending vehicle then abscond on foot.' This would appear to mean that in more than fifty percent of chases the suspect manages to escape.
It has further been claimed that the guidelines put in place to protect the public effectively encourage absconders to drive dangerously in order to have the police call off the pursuit. John Cadogan has noted, 'Recidivist offenders and hardened criminals, many with outstanding warrants, use the [New South Wales] Safe Driving Policy to their advantage. Pursuits are automatically terminated, it says, when the risk exceeds the need to apprehend the offender immediately. Officers I have interviewed say crooks in the know get the headlights off at night and drive on the wrong side at more than double the speed limit, or drive through red lights at dangerous speeds, forcing police to terminate the pursuit. They also head for known police radio blackspots.'
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4. Police are inadequately trained to conduct pursuits
Critics have argued that the training given is not sufficient to prepare police recruits for the demands of 'urgent duty driving'.
Commenting on the training given New South Wales police officers, John Cadogan, of the drivers' advice Internet site Caradvice, has claimed, 'A senior officer reported on ABC radio that Gold-classified NSW Police licence holders (the top qualification) receive just five hours' of pursuit-specific practical training at the Goulburn (NSW) Police Academy. Once passed, that's it. There is no ongoing qualification benchmark test. (Yet, incomprehensibly, every officer must pass an annual handgun refresher.)'
Similar claims have been in relation to the training received by Victorian police officers. The Fitzroy Legal Centre in a report, prepared in 1991 stated, 'Driver training for police, recruited at 18 years of age, currently consists of a two week (ten day) driving course comprising several days lectures, some low speed driving at the Attwood driving track and skid pan, several days driving in the suburbs, and one day at Calder raceway doing mock pursuits and learning evasive action skills. ' The report concluded, 'This practical training actually encourages use of high speed.'
5. High speed pursuits can give a habit-inducing 'thrill' to police and those the pursue
The following comments come from a former member of the New South Wales police. They were published anonymously in The Sydney Morning Herald on November 13, 2004.
'A police chase was one of the most incredible experiences I have had, and the closest I have come to dying. I know police who spend their lives trying to get into pursuits because it is such an adrenaline boost.
Pursuits are an intricate part of the predominantly male culture of young police, particularly in inner-city areas and the highway patrol. They invariably become a pissing competition between the police and the crooks to see who is a better driver. When that dangerous mix of testosterone and adrenaline kicks in, all reason goes out the window.
I know of a detectives' office which had "pursuit tapes" in all their cars. They would put them into the tape deck immediately after starting a pursuit. These tapes were recordings of heavy metal and other high energy music, which I guess they felt added to the experience of the pursuit...
The radio operator keeps asking you questions and you have to answer them as calmly as possible. They are trying to judge whether you are in control and thus able to conduct the chase in a safe and reasoned manner. Somehow, a calm came over me and I was able to give the information to the radio operator without panic in my voice.
They constantly ask you for speeds, but it is a well-known technique to either grossly underestimate the speeds or give them when you are turning corners (and hence going slower).
However, I quickly realised that the driver had "tunnel vision" or "missile lock", in that he was focused on the stolen car and nothing else...'
Referring to some of those who joy-ride and flee the police, this officer said, 'The driver and passenger of the stolen car got out and ran, but were caught shortly after.
The driver was 14 and the passenger 18. I sat with both of them in the cells back at the police station and we shared our own experiences of the chase. They told me that they had both been in hundreds of chases and it was clear that they baited police into chasing them because the adrenaline rush that came with it was like a drug.'
Further implications
All that can be said with certainty about the current situation with regard to high speed police chases is that it is not sustainable. The level of risk to the public is neither politically nor morally acceptable, particularly when fatalities can be children and other obviously innocent bystanders.
However, there is no obvious solution to the problem.
The recent decision in New South Wales to increase dramatically the penalties imposed on those who flee a crime would appear to fly in the face of reason. Suspected criminals generally flee a scene to escape capture. Imposing a prison term upon them for leaving a crime scene would seem to be an encouragement to them to strive harder to escape. This appears to be particularly the case when it is already acknowledged that hardened criminals will already drive highly recklessly in order to force the police to call off a chase.
However, it seems equally unlikely that there will be a permanent moratorium on high speed police chases. The public's desire to have criminals apprehended and property protected, together with both the police's and politicians' perceptions of their public duty is likely to mean that such a ban could never be kept in place. It is also the case that knowledge of such a ban would be an incentive to commit crimes as perpetrators would have an increased belief that they could escape apprehension.
Perhaps the solution lies with advances in technology. New high speed chase equipment is to be trialled by South Australian Police under State Government plans to boost police funding.
On February 24, 2010, the South Australian Premier Mike Rann announced that the Star Chase system, which is used by Los Angeles and Arizona police, is to be trialled in ten patrol vehicles at a cost of $250,000.
Under the system, police shoot a GPS tracking device on to the car being chased and can then retreat and follow the criminals from a safe distance which dispatchers track the car via a secure website. Mr Rann said this would make it safer for the pursuing police and other road users. He claimed, 'This new crime-fighting device is designed to stop the high-risk, high-speed car chases on our roads while keeping criminals or hoon drivers under safer but constant detection.'
