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Wednesday May 23, 2012

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Police 'damned' either way: Hinch

Posted by: 3AW Radio | 10 January, 2012 - 5:07 PM
The scene after the fatal crash (Wayne Hawkins: The Age)

It's a debate that comes up every time somebody dies or is badly injured during, or minutes after, a police chase. Should high speed Police pursuits be banned? 

One woman who lost her daughter in such a crash has called fatal Police chases 'de facto murder'.

*Scroll down for Hinch's interviews with Peter Norden and ex-police commissioner, Bob Falconer, on the subject police pursuits*

And former prison chaplain and now RMIT academic, Peter Norden, has described the police car as 'now the most dangerous weapon in the Police arsenal'.

The issue is in the news again after the death of a man who was a passenger in an allegedly stolen car in Dandenong today.

The car ploughed into a barrier shortly after police gave chase, the driver now under police guard in hospital with minor injuries.

Also, a short time ago a teenager died when his car slammed into a tree at Cobram in country Victoria shortly after police abandoned their pursuit. 

They had attempted to pull him over for a random check but he took off and reached speeds of 120km/h in an 80km/h. That's when they abandoned the chase and a minute later he was dead.

The Cobram death was the second fatality arising out of a police pursuit in Victoria in a fortnight.

In my opinion police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. It would be crazy if the word went out that all police chases must be abandoned if the pursued reached a speed of 120km/h or 140km/h.

That would be a green light for hoons and crims trying to avoid questioning, let alone arrest.

You have to remember the obvious: Only the guilty flee.

I agree with former Victorian Assistant Commissioner and then West Australian Police Commissioner Bob Falconer. He says: 'Any Police officer worth his or her salt should chase people who flee from them. It is their job. Pundits need to accept the fact that there is no pursuit without flight'.

That's true. If you are not fleeing then the police are not chasing. The former cop also says: 'History shows that those who run for it  are all law breakers'. And he is right.

Surprisingly, even Christine Nixon, with all her fuzzy-wuzzy, warm and cuddly ideas about Policing policy, supported police pursuits. She said the community would not support Police giving the 'green light'  to fleeing suspects. And she was right.

Just last month Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said that speeding hoons were taunting police to chase them – knowing the officers must call of any high-speed chase if there were a risk to civilian lives.

He told of cases where young drivers were 'baiting Police to pursue them'.

One of the most tragic police pursuit cases was in Canberra when a 23-year-old man named Justin Williams was killed in a car crash. I couldn't care less about him. But, tragically, he ran a red light during a police chase. Police said they stopped the chase seconds before an accident.

Williams' car slammed into a family vehicle and tore it in half.  He died. So did all three members of one family.

Does that mean police should never pursue a person believed to driving a stolen car or believed to be fleeing the scene of a crime.

I'd say NO.

PLAY: Hinch's interviews on subject of police pursuits

Pursuit protocol questioned

The accident in Stud Road this morning (Fairfax) A police pursuit has ended with one man dead and another in hospital. The car crashed at the Stud Road Overpass and the male passenger died at the scene. It was one of two pursuits overnight. Click on the image on the right to read and hear more.

Blog comments Your Say

  • Thats right people, lets tie the police hands so that they can only arrest the honest, hey wait...... lets sack the entire police force so that way that the police can't be blamed for the stupidity of criminal, yes thats what they are.
    The life of a police officer is placed at risk every time they go to a call out and every time they pull someone over as they don't know if they have a loon or someone who has made a simple mistake.
    If someone dies because of a police chase its not because of the police, its because the FLAMING IDIOT DID NOT STOP when requested. We have 2 choices, let the police do their jobs to the best of their abilities without restrictions or we might as well get rid of the police and live in a place where we all carry guns and when threatened we shoot those that threaten us.

    Barry Taylor Sunday 22 January, 2012 - 8:45 AM

  • Good outcome. It means with these two wanton maniacs out of the way and in their right place, that we citizens are no longer threatened by them. And hearty congratulations to the police involved who pursued these creeps. Never, ever give up! Chase them to the nth degree. The criminal element are the losers in the end as this case is pure testimony of that.

    Samuel J James Saturday 21 January, 2012 - 8:38 PM

  • For goodness sake, do we want our Police to be able to enforce our laws or don't we?

    Every time some lunatic pulls a knife, or refuses to stop, and is killed, we get this insane carry on, yet do those who protest ever make as much fuss about the way their property and their lives are able to be lived without the lawlessness we'd have if it wasn't for our Police?

    I don't like it when I get a speeding fine, but I was the one who sped, so I have to cop my punishment.

    Anyone who threatens our Police or refuses to comply with their directions is asking for trouble. They do not have my sympathy when the consequences of their unnecessary behaviour are fatal.

    For the extremist, no, I do not want my Police shooting anyone who refuses to comply, but equally, I do want my Police protecting me, and they can't do that with their hands tied behind their backs.

    Common sense is all that's required from the public, then the Police will have no need to pursue or shoot.

    Bob Sunday 15 January, 2012 - 2:41 PM

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