Review advises changes to police pursuit policy

File photo / NZ Herald

Banning police pursuits won't guarantee public safety, but other measures can be taken to make pursuits safer, a police review says.

A report released today said pursuits posed a complex policy problem, with police required to balance the needs of law enforcement with public safety.

There was "insufficient evidence to support the banning of pursuits", the report said.

Police have recorded 1280 police pursuits so far this year, from January 1 to July 22, with 199 ending in crashes, six deaths and 61 injuries.

Last year there were 2512 pursuits, with two ending in deaths. There were 2153 pursuits in 2008 with six deaths and 2435 in 2007 with three deaths.

The report said a ban was unlikely to improve or guarantee public safety, and it was questionable whether the public would support a policy allowing offenders to flee police.

"If criminals know that police will not pursue them, or have so many restrictions placed on them it renders pursuits futile, then the job of police to uphold the law not only becomes difficult, but almost impossible."

The report was the result of a fourth review into pursuits in six years, and also examined international research into pursuits.

It made a number of recommendations, including more training for staff involved in pursuits, limiting the number of vehicles involved in pursuits, expanding the abandonment criteria, and abandoning pursuits once an offender's identity was known and they could be apprehended later.

The report also made recommendations on risk management, including an assessment by police whether their actions were proportionate to the offence and whether their decisions and resulting actions are justified - a point which "may be tested under the spotlight of legal proceedings long after the pursuit has ended".

Superintendent Paula Rose said the report did not cover everything, and police would continue to review and refine the pursuits policy.

"It is likely that technological advances and new operational procedures will play an important role in pursuits in the future but our focus will always be on ensuring the safety of the public and police staff," she said.

"Any loss of live is not acceptable, however we deal in an area of great risk," Ms Rose told Radio New Zealand. "So we've tightened up a number of criteria of the current policy so we can make a very risky game as safe as we possibly can.

"I think they've been some quite substantial changes, particularly around limiting the number of vehicles involved in a pursuit."

Rose also said if a senior officer was a passenger in a patrol vehicle, the officer could call off a chase if they thought it had become too dangerous.

Police must now also call off a chase if they lose sight of the vehicle they are pursuing.

But the Candor Trust, a group calling for road policing reform, says the policy changes will not do enough to make pursuits safer.

"In no way is it a restrictive policy, it's a very lax policy when compared with overseas," group spokeswoman Rachael Ford told Radio New Zealand.

Ms Ford said if police wanted to make a real difference, they would ease off pursuing minor matters and refuse to chase young drivers.

The Candor Trust is calling for a royal commission of inquiry into police pursuit policy.

"We've become a very dangerous country...we've now got the leading death toll per roading kilometre in the OECD and we lead in youth tolls. We're not getting it right," said Ms Ford.

In February, the Independent Police Conduct Authority ruled a December 2008 Christchurch pursuit which ended in a crash, injuring three people, had breached policy and amounted to misconduct.

The pursuit, by two officers in an unmarked car, ended when the fleeing driver collided with another car, causing life-threatening injuries to its driver and injuring two passengers.

The authority found the officers were not justified in starting the pursuit as they had failed to consider the risks associated with pursuing a speeding vehicle towards the central city on a Friday evening when pedestrian and vehicle traffic were likely to be heavy.

The authority also found the officers should have abandoned the pursuit.

- NZPA, NZ Herald staff