Page 1262 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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Assembly and the Canberra community the benefit of having a committee look closely at this issue, consider the complexities of the policy, talk to the community, talk to the police and other stakeholders, and provide a report and recommendations. This will be a very valuable exercise in ensuring we have the right balance in our police pursuits policy.
Police pursuit policy is a vexed area. The police have an important role in enforcing the criminal law. But at the same time police pursuits create a risk to those involved and the wider community as they often lead to dangerous and high-speed driving.
Let me say from the outset that I acknowledge the very difficult job of our police officers. The police do a very good job and they do a very valuable job for our community. By bringing this motion I am not seeking to criticise the police. The motivations of police officers undertaking pursuits are good and honourable and in line with ACT police practice and procedures.
There is a legitimate question for the community, however, regarding law enforcement practices that expose the community to risks. It will be very valuable for the committee to canvass the views of the public, to look at the experience of other jurisdictions and to talk to police about the challenges they face in enforcing the law and deciding whether and when they pursue a vehicle.
We cannot look at the issue of police pursuits without acknowledging the very sad reality that police pursuits are implicated in a surprising number of deaths in the Australian community. A recent analysis from the Australian Institute of Criminology showed that from 2000 to 2011 in Australia, there have been an average of 15 crashes and 18 deaths each year related to police pursuits. When you stop and think about it, that is an astounding number of tragic fatalities: an average of 18 deaths every year related to police pursuits. That is 218 deaths between 2000 and 2011 across Australia. I think that is a figure that is not widely known in the community. It is a key motivation for me and it is why I believe that both the Assembly and the community should look at this issue more closely.
To provide some further detail, 110 of the 218 deaths were of alleged offenders who were driving the vehicle being pursued; 26 deaths were of alleged offenders who were passengers in the vehicle being pursued; 82 of the deaths were innocent passengers in the vehicle being pursued, or other innocent bystanders or road users, often pedestrians or in a completely separate vehicle that had nothing to do with the pursuit. Six of the deaths were police members killed in pursuits.
In Canberra specifically, between 2004 and 2010, seven people died in accidents related to police pursuits, and there have been other crashes and injuries.
That information is from one of the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice series papers, released in the middle of last year. I recommend it to members as it is valuable research in an area that is typically not well researched or well publicised.
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