Right: collateral damage: a woman died when her car was hit by a police vehicle engaged in a pursuit..
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Background information
Early on the morning of the attack in the Melbourne CBD, the alleged perpetrator is believed to have stabbed his brother outside a house on the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Windsor. Some nine hours later he is located and followed by police who subsequently pull back in response to his dangerous and erratic driving. The car continues to be followed by the air police wing.
At 1.30pm the driver is reported doing burn-outs outside Flinders Street station. He then proceeds up Swanston Street to the Bourke Street Mall where a number of pedestrians are struck and injured or killed.
Police ultimately ram the vehicle and apprehend the driver in Williams Street. The driver is superficially wounded by police fire.
History of Victoria Police's pursuit police (1991 to 2017)
Victoria Police has been addressing the question of how to apprehend potential criminals absconding in vehicles in a way that prioritises public safety for nearly three decades.
In 1991, Victoria Police developed a 'safety-first' policy for pursuits. However, critics claimed the review that produced the policy was not sufficiently open to public scrutiny and that its policy emphasis did not focus on whether an incident was serious enough to warrant giving chase.
After continuing fatalities, the State Coroner, Graeme Johnstone, called on Victoria Police to review its guidelines further to reduce the number of offences for which pursuit would be allowable.
Following the mid 1990s criticisms of Victoria Police, in terms of the 'gap' between the policy of 'safety-first' and the reality of the use of 'high risk' operational tactics, all police policies were reviewed to ensure they prioritised safety.
The resultant pursuit policy outlines a range of factors to be considered in the decision-making process to ensure minimum force and that the 'mandatory operating principle is "the safety of the police, the public and offenders or suspects is paramount"'.
The Victoria Police pursuit policy has for decades required officers to perform a risk assessment before undertaking and when continuing a pursuit. This includes considering the threat to safety of any person, the competence of the police driver, the type of police vehicle, whether the police vehicle has warning devices (markings, lights and sirens), the manner in which the pursued vehicle is being driven and its and speed and whether the absconding driver has been identified.
On December 31, 2006, Sarah Louise Booth, 17, was killed in O'Grady's Road, Carrum Downs, during a police pursuit which continued for three or four minutes. Police estimated the car crashed at 138km/h.
On December 13, 2009, Jason Shaun Kumar, 15, died when the stolen Ford Laser he was driving crashed into a fence after hitting another car at the intersection of Bayswater and Canterbury roads, Bayswater. Police estimate the car he was driving hit the other car at 143km/h to158km/h.
In 2011 Victoria Police undertook Inspectorate Review 20 - Evaluation of Pursuits which made 11 recommendations to increase the safety of pursuits of which nine were approved.
On January 22, 2012, two deaths that occurred after a police pursuit brought the number of deaths following a police pursuit to five since mid 2011.
In July, 2014, Coroner John Olle, made his recommendations after investigating the deaths of Sarah Booth and Jason Kumar. He urged police not to pursue drivers unless they were involved in the most serious crimes, after finding experienced officers had failed to ask key safety questions in chases that resulted in the deaths of the two teenagers.
By July, 2015, 13 people had been killed and 28 injured in police pursuits over the previous five years. Victoria Police responded to these deaths and a series of coronial recommendations with a new, more limited pursuit policy.
Under the terms of the new policy members must not initiate or continue a pursuit unless they believe that there is an urgent need to apprehend the vehicle occupant/s because:
* It is necessary to prevent a serious risk to public health and safety.
* A criminal offence has been committed, or is about to be committed, which involves serious injury to a person.
* Alternative means for apprehending the vehicle's occupant/s are not feasible.
* The overall harm they are seeking to prevent is greater than the risks involved in conducting the pursuit.
In December 2015, Victoria Police undertook to review the new policy in response to complaints from officers and members of the public that the new policy was too restricted. Assistant Commissioner Fryer and Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton noted that Victoria Police had taken a 'reputational hit' over the policy which some members of the public saw as a failure to act in response to car thefts and other crimes.
In February, 2016, the Police Association released the results of a survey of member responses, preliminary to Victoria Police's review of the new pursuit policy. 93% of the members who responded indicated that the new policy needed to change.
The Police Association made 17 recommendations to improve the policy following the survey.
The Police Association recommendations include:
* change the wording of the policy to remove a prohibitive tone and unclear definitions;
* provide clearer guidelines on circumstances under which police pursuits can be activated;
* give police greater freedom to weigh risks and benefits.
* expand the offences for which a pursuit is justified to include all indictable offences, including serious property crime.
In July, 2016, Victoria Police made further revisions to its pursuit policy intended to expand the range of offences for which a driver might be pursued and to give greater decision-making capacity to the officers in the field. The Minister for Police, Lisa Neville, stated, 'The changes will make it clearer that people will be pursued, but [officers] won't put others lives at risk.'
Significantly, the precise nature of these most recent changes was deliberately not made public. Assistant Police Commissioner Doug Fryer claimed the secrecy was necessary so as not to 'educate' criminals of the circumstances under which they could expect to be pursued.
In December, 2016, it was also reported that 103 police cars had been deliberately rammed between June 2015 and June 2016. A further 53 police cars had been rammed between July 1 and December 1, 2016. In addition, it was reported that offenders were 'baiting' police. They also seemed to be driving erratically in order to ensure they would not be pursued.
On 20 January 2017, a car was driven into pedestrians in the CBD of Melbourne. Six people were killed and at least thirty others wounded, three of whom sustained critical injuries.
Police have alleged that the victims were intentionally hit, and have charged the driver of the vehicle with six counts of murder.
A discussion has ensued surrounding the appropriateness of Victoria Police's management of the incident prior to people being killed and injured. The police actions will form part of the matters to be considered in the coronial inquest conducted into the deaths.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has stated, 'The coroner will, I can assure you, do a forensic examination of the whole issue, right around police endeavours to catch this particular criminal, [and] the role of the justice system involved in previous dealings with the criminal. The issues around mental health, issues around drug abuse, they will be dealt be by the coroner in forensic detail.'