Fed: Call for national police road pursuit inquiry

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-2004
Fed: Call for national police road pursuit inquiry

Eds: takes in Toll ACT



By Paul Osborne

CANBERRA, April 17 AAP - Deaths during police chases in two cities this week have triggered
calls for a national inquiry.

A man, believed to be driving a stolen car involved in a robbery, died when it crashed
during a police chase through suburban Canberra today.

Yesterday, a woman was killed on Melbourne's Princes Freeway when her motorcycle was
struck by a car driven into oncoming traffic by a man fleeing police.

Around 80 people are believed to have been killed during police car chases nationally
over the past decade.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said the federal government
should refer the issue to the Institute of Criminology for a national inquiry.

"What happens is we act as if we're eight different countries, as opposed to one country
having eight different states and territories in relation to this problem," Mr O'Gorman
said today.

"All that happens is there is a fatality, police put out the standard response of `Well,
it will be the subject of a coronial inquest' and 12 months later the coroner says something.

It's like a drop in the ocean.

"It is a serious national policing problem."

Mr O'Gorman said that until the inquiry completed its findings, all jurisdictions should
ban chases except in cases that posed serious risk of violence to other people.

"In others words, the current frequent practice throughout the country of police chasing
someone because they've gone through a radar trap or have gone through a random breath
test and haven't stopped must end," Mr O'Gorman said.

"If you look at most of the instances of fatalities, they are in circumstances where
the initial incident was really quite minor and, frequently enough, it's an innocent member
of the public, as opposed to the person being chased, who gets killed or seriously injured."

Mr O'Gorman said the greater use of helicopters and improving coordination between
officers in the police control room and patrol cars would help ease the situation.

Last month, a Victorian coroner called for all high speed police pursuits to be banned
until officers complete a new training program, after the death of an 18-year-old man.

And in NSW in January, a police policy review was initiated after a Commodore being
chased by officers hit a Ford Falcon, killing the driver and a three-year-old passenger.

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KEYWORD: PURSUIT

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