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Police will no longer pursue drivers who are speeding, acting suspiciously, or fleeing for no apparent reason in a major shakeup of controversial pursuit procedures.
An internal police email was leaked to Stuff advises staff not to pursue fleeing drivers unless the threat posed “outweighs the risk of harm from pursuit.”
The revised policy, which has not been publicly announced, was emailed on December 10, indicating the need to “change a culture that is decades old.”
Between 2009 and 2018, 67 people died during police chases.
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There have been several high-profile deaths resulting in criticism of the police since then, including Kenneth McCaul, who died when a fleeing driver struck him on his way to work in 2019.
Frontline police say chasing down suspected drunk drivers, car thieves and suspicious vehicles will now be a thing of the past because the suspected crime does not justify the risk.
DAVID WALKER / THINGS
The wreckage of a vehicle that crashed during a police chase in January 2019, killing three.
The email Stuff Inspector Wade Jennings, Wellington’s road surveillance manager, dispatched the district’s front-line police.
The “revised” policy suggests “changing mindsets, pursuing decisions and how we resolve them.”
“Chases are a high-risk tactical option, it’s very difficult to set black and white rules, so there will be a lot of education and discussion,” Jennings wrote.
The email stated that a chase would only be justified when the threat posed by those in the vehicle before directing the driver to stop and the need to immediately stop the driver and / or passengers “outweighs the risk of harm from the chase. “.
JOSEPH JOHNSON / THINGS
Friends and family remember Kenneth McCaul, who was killed while driving to work in a car involved in a police chase. (video first published in October 2019)
“The big part of that is, what was the threat it posed before the signage, some examples like, just an ION (notice of violation) infraction, it looked like they were going speeding, 1C (person or car acting suspiciously ), motorcycles without license plates, cyclist without a helmet or they just fled for no apparent reason, you obviously tell them to stop, but the chase is unlikely to reach the new threshold. “
As had always been the case, a driver who failed to stop or remained stopped was not in itself a sufficient reason to pursue. Research was the preferred first step, the email said.
“A very basic question to ask yourself is ‘Is what I’m pursuing worth risking?’
The email said that the mindset change “was not going to change overnight.” Officers will need to complete training online.
The revised policy tried to “think about it and get everyone operating on the same page.”
“It is practically impossible to put fleeing drivers’ incidents into simple dos and don’ts: they are high risk, they pump the adrenaline of catching the bad person, but they can, in an instant, go terribly wrong ”.
Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft, who previously called for an end to the chases of young drivers, said the change was a “positive step forward” and would save lives.
“I don’t think it is weak, I do not think it is soft, I think it is an acknowledgment that the searches themselves, especially when there are children or young people driving in the car, can cause reckless and reckless driving that puts lives at risk.
“Almost always young people and children can be caught the next day … and sometimes I think the brave thing is to take the heat out of the situation.”
Supplied
Glen Mcallister, 16, Craig Mcallister, 13, and Brooklyn Taylor, 13, were killed when they collided with spikes on the road while trying to evade police in Christchurch in January 2019.
Risk of more drivers fleeing
Police Association President Chris Cahill said the revised policy aligned more with foreign models.
Officers had expressed concern that the policy would lead to more fleeing driver incidents, he said.
“The counterargument is the dangers and the resulting deaths do not justify that risk of pursuing him in the first place.”
Officers were now held accountable for fleeing driver incidents “to a degree never seen before,” Cahill said.
“Our members are constantly criticized for the results of their activities, so if they are not going to get public or legal support, why should they if they are putting themselves at risk?”
Maarten Holl / Things
Police Association President Chris Cahill says the revised policy more closely aligns with policing models abroad.
Cahill said he supported the revised policy but agreed that it was not a “complete answer.” He believed that the only solution was to find a way to immobilize motor vehicles.
The driver of the fleeing car that killed McCaul, 17-year-old Jayden Richard Breakwell, had been chased by police at high speed through seven red lights before the accident.
An investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) found that officers should not have initiated the chase and that there were “multiple occasions” when she should have been abandoned.
Te Ari Taylor’s brother Brooklyn Taylor was killed along with Craig McAllister, 13, and Glen McAllister, 16, when the stolen car they were in crashed and caught fire after driving through police spikes in Christchurch in January of last year.
He welcomed the revised policy and said the police should not go after young drivers.
“I’m totally in favor of that … they shouldn’t be chasing.”
The almost two years since his death had been “horrible,” he said.
“Time heals but it doesn’t change the fact that he is not here. He is such an important part of our family, if only we could turn back the clock. “
STENT / KEVIN THINGS
The Independent Police Conduct Authority believes he is being misunderstood by media reports. (Video first published in December 2017)
Andrew Talaimanu’s son Connor was one of two people killed during a chase on an Auckland motorway in 2017.
The 29-year-old and Sharina Storm Meuli, 25, were passengers in a car driven by Prushya Chaichumphon, who sped up to 160 km / h as she fled and performed dangerous maneuvers through four lanes of the highway, before crashing into a tree.
A police officer drove 200 km / h in pursuit.
The IPCA ruled that the persecution should have been dropped, the officer acted dangerously, and he should have faced a criminal investigation.
‘Too many innocent people are dying’
Talaimanu said Stuff he supported any initiative to reduce the damage caused by the activities.
“Unless someone is holding someone hostage at gunpoint and there is a serious threat to life, we shouldn’t be chasing a car and coming to a complete stop … too many innocent people are dying from a stolen car,” he said.
He believed that if the police had better technology, they would be able to locate criminals more easily.
Supplied
Connor Talaimanu died after a police chase in Auckland in October 2017. His father says he supports any initiative to reduce the damage caused by the persecutions.
A review of the fleeing driving events, the first joint effort on the issue by the police and the IPCA, made eight recommendations when it was published in March last year.
The report found that officers did not understand the risk posed by initiating a chase, and most staff assessed the risk without appreciating how a chase can create or exacerbate risk.
It found that multiple police officers took unnecessary risks to catch fleeing drivers for relatively minor offenses.
In a statement, a police spokeswoman said the review found that while police policy was robust, it was not always being used consistently or as it should be.
“There have been no changes to the policy criteria for initiating a search, there are no specific limitations.”
The “slight modification” to the policy was to recognize that the police needed to “better articulate the intent” of the policy so that staff could apply it consistently.
“It’s about reminding them to think about the threat, the exposure, the need and the response before even directing the driver to stop,” the spokeswoman said.
Police Minister Poto Williams said the fleeing policy was an “operational matter” for the police.
However, he said he supported the intention to rephrase the existing policy to bring it in line with the joint police / IPCA review recommendations.
