Page 1264 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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Similar results have been achieved elsewhere, including in Australia. In 1991 Tasmania Police introduced a restrictive policy that only allowed pursuits for violent offences such as murder and kidnap. Tasmanian Assistant Commissioner Scott Tilyard said:
… one of the things that people will say is that if police can’t pursue for a whole range of things, then crime will get out of control ... but in our experience that has certainly not been the case … in the last 10 years our crime categories have reduced significantly in Tasmania. For example, motor vehicle stealing, which used to be one of the main triggers for pursuits, has actually gone down. Back in 2000, nearly 4,000 cars were stolen each year in Tasmania, last year we had just 1,300 stolen.
As I said, I make these points not to ask the Assembly to agree to change police pursuits policy. I make them to show that it is a difficult area of policy, perhaps more complicated than we realise, and it is an area where common assumptions prove to be unfounded. It would be fruitful for a committee to look at the evidence in more detail, hear from people involved and examine experiences in other places. Other jurisdictions have engaged in similar review processes in recent years, with the goal of reducing the risk of fatality during pursuits. This has not happened in the ACT.
Throughout 2009, for example, the Queensland State Coroner and the Queensland police service worked together to review its pursuit policy. The resulting recommendations aimed to re-focus the pursuit policy on safety rather than law enforcement, discouraging officers from pursuing vehicles for minor traffic and drink-driving offences. This resulted in a revised, more restrictive police pursuits policy adopted in late 2011. South Australia Police similarly reviewed and reformed its pursuit policy, introducing a more restrictive policy in January 2012. As I mentioned, Tasmania has been using a restrictive police pursuits policy for many years.
Just last month, the New South Wales coroner released a report following the 2011 death of a young man involved in a police chase. The coroner called for a comprehensive root and branch review of issues such as when to terminate a pursuit and when the costs outweigh the benefits of pursuing a suspected criminal. The coroner recommended special consideration when pursing a motorbike rider, because of the greater risk of death, an interesting acknowledgement that motorcycle riders are vulnerable road users. He also suggested that chases that were initiated should be limited to two minutes. These are all issues that would benefit from investigation in the ACT
In conclusion, let me reiterate the reasons I think that this Assembly should support a committee inquiry into police pursuits.
Police pursuits are clearly a difficult area of policy, requiring a balancing of community safety and the need to enforce the laws. They unfortunately are implicated in many deaths, injuries and accidents. There is growing evidence about the benefits of more restrictive policies and growing evidence from other jurisdictions that demonstrates the outcomes, in terms of crimes, number of people fleeing and accident rates, of different policies across the spectrum of possibilities. Other Australian jurisdictions have been both reviewing and refining their policies. This has not been done in the ACT.
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