Police message to fleeing drivers: man up and stop

Sixteen per cent of pursuits end in crashes. Last year, five people were killed. Photo / Dean Purcell

The number of drivers fleeing police has dropped in the past three years, but New Zealand's traffic chief says the numbers are still unacceptable.

Superintendent Paula Rose has a simple message for drivers pulled over by police: grow up, man up and "just stop".

Figures released to the Herald under the Official Information Act reveal 2115 drivers fled police between January 1 and November 25 last year - 234 fewer than in 2009.

In 2010, 2211 drivers fled, compared with 2349 in 2009.

"We are seeing that shift downward, which is a good thing," said Ms Rose, the national road policing manager. "But we're not seeing a shift down in the number of crashes, which has remained relatively stable at about 16 per cent."

She said most pursuits were "really quick" and more often than not they were abandoned by police soon after they started.

In 2009, police abandoned 29 per cent of all pursuits and increased that to 48 per cent in 2011. Police abandoned 1022 pursuits in 2011.

In total, five people were killed last year and 89 injured including 69 people in offending vehicles, four police officers and 16 innocent bystanders or road users.

"Which is not to say we don't capture the men or women at a later time. Police are looking more broadly than simply detecting the person and stopping them at the time."

Ms Rose said that wherever possible police were gleaning CCTV footage of drivers, speed and red light camera footage and registration details in a bid to identify the driver without having to chase them in their vehicle.

"Anything that we think is sufficient to identify, then if the circumstances are such that we think it's unsafe, we'll abandon."

Commissioner Peter Marshall said the increase showed police were using other methods of catching fleeing drivers.

"There are plenty of cameras around towns or cities. There are many ways to track these people and very few get away in the long run. If we can apprehend safely, we will do so. If you are going to flee, you're only aggravating the situation in terms of charges down the road.

"The message is that you don't flee from police, and we hold the drivers responsible."

He said police had not become more lenient in terms of chasing suspected criminals.

"We have a clear set of rules around where pursuits need to be abandoned - if there's unnecessary danger to the public or the fleeing person."

Ms Rose believed fewer people were fleeing police thanks to a shift in the way society viewed the behaviour.

"Society has quite a strong conversation going about people who choose to evade responsibly for their actions, the fleeing driver is actually only one part.

"The theme that seems to resonate over and over is we want people to be accountable. And that to me is actually growing in fervour more than it was five years ago. I think it's a good sign. It's about time we all grew up."

Her message to all drivers in a situation where they had to stop for police is simple.

"Stop. And if you've done the wrong thing, quite frankly, it's about time you manned up. Stand up and take some responsibility for your actions. You just make it worse by doing a runner.

"It just becomes bigger, bigger, bigger because the person has not elected to man up - or woman up. The life you save by stopping could be your own, but the life you save could be somebody else's.

"The worst thing, of course, is that an innocent person loses their life. To me a mistake shouldn't cost you your life. In this society our penalties are reasonable for offending. Stop, for God's sake stop."