Pursuits

[just.nosey]

I know this post will cause an amount of controversy but I would be interested in the various readers thoughts so here goes.

I would like to see the W.A. Government get some balls and change the law so that Police involved in Pursuits are 100% protected by law in the same way as they are in Canada.

In Canada person who engages Police in a Pursuit assumes full responsibility for the Pursuit and is held accountable for it's outcome.

For example in Canada if the Police were to call on me to pull over and I took off (Fail To Stop) and in the course of the pursuit I go screeming through and intersection followed by a Police car who happens to hit another car and say kill the occupant(s) of that car apart from the usual charges Fail To Stop, Reckless Driving, and anything else that can be tacked on e.g. Drunk Driving, Stolen Motor Vehicle I would also be charged with Wilfull Murder or in the case where the Person wasn't killed a lesser charge of Reckless Driving Causing Grevous Bodily Harm even though the car I was driving wasn't involved in the crash.

The Police over there are protected 100% and all charges revert to the driver of the offending vehicle.

Even better is the way the law is written, There is no defence that will be accepted by the courts and the result is very simple Do The Crime and Your Going To Do Some Serious Time.

Canada has one of the Lowest (if not the Lowest) Rate of Pursuits in the modern world which has been directly attributed to their tough laws.

I do agree the death of any person (except the baddie) as a result of a pursuit is regrettable.

Some may argue get more stingers:

I lived in Qld many years ago (the 70's) where I wittnessed a pursuit in the suburb of Chelmsford (north of the city) and saw the Police shoot out both the right hand side tyres on the car they were chasing.

I would have expected the drag on the right hand side of the car to pull the car to the right however the car went left mounted the footpath and killed 2 pedestrians.

Whether bullets or stingers are used there is still a risk the driver of the car could lose control of said car and kill someone.

[jmmw]

bullet rapidly deflate the tire causing a sudden shift in balance while stingers leave small hollow tubes in the tire allowing time for the air to escape over the course of a couple seconds, enoguh time for the driver to adjust his driving accordingly.

[Zebedee]

That's the fun part of being involved in a forum, you get to learn all kinds of new stuff. I had no idea about the Canadian laws regarding pursuits.

It's an interesting proposal just.nosey - and I'm sure if it were proposed it would get some interesting opinions coming through in both a positive and negative sense.

After sitting thinking about the idea for a minute or two, I think it's an idea that certainly has some merit. The police at the moment seem to have to walk a tightrope every time they get into a pursuit. At least some of that can be attributed at times to sensationalist media reporting.

In an ideal world, the police a) would keep chasing the baddies until they got them, b) would make sure that members of the public weren't in danger and c) would be given the freedom to make a decision on the spot whether to continue the pursuit or to back off.

Unfortunately if you have "a", you can't guarantee "b", which makes it harder for police management to allow "c"... Just shows the less than perfect world we live in I guess.

For my part, I support the police chasing people who are trying to get away. In the long run, the streets will be safer by getting these baddies off the road.

(Oh and it makes for interesting scanner listening, but that's just an added bonus, it's not the reason behind my opinion...)