Police Pursuits !

After a tardy investigation, the 40 year old senior constable who crashed a police car in Cronulla last week was charged with dangerous driving  occasioning grievous bodily harm.  His patrol car was driving at high speed without lights or sirens when it T boned a Mercedes Benz and that driver remains in a coma with extensive major industries.   The police car was in pursuit of another driver, for the offence of using a mobile phone while driving.

Statistics show that police pursuits have increased by thirty-seven percent since 2014.  Police drivers are highly skilled and in the majority of cases it is the car being chased that crashes and causes material damage or injuries to innocent people.  When an erring driver takes that escape option the adrenalin kicks in and this often results in disastrous driving decisions.  Police pursuits are usually abandoned by a remote controller when safety standards are judged to be inadequate.

Policing is all about the power of the badge worn by sworn officers.  The police culture demands obedience and there is something romantic about turning admiring heads with a highspeed pursuit under lights and sirens.  It is a skill contest and officers get the satisfaction of eventually pulling over the offending motorist when they gain victory in the chase.

There seems no doubt some police find pursuit exhilarating and find it a welcome diversion to the boring job of policing.  They claim that if police pursuits are curtailed it will increase the number of events where offenders speed away, knowing pursuit is unlikely.  In particular, drivers with alcohol or drugs in their system avoid breath testing stations and these are the focal point of many chase incidents.   Incidence of alcohol in the blood can not be tested unless that driver is subjected to an immediate test.  Evasive tactics on test approaches always result in police action to apprehend the driver.

One of the main reasons for police pursuits is recognition  that the car has been reported stolen.  A modern car is a very expensive piece of machinery and a bandit has prevented the owner gaining the benefit of its use.  It is a legitimate police task to arrest that bandit and return the car to its owner. That can not be achieved unless the stolen car is stopped and the driver arrested, and for that to happen a pursuit is necessary.

We can not avoid police pursuits entirely, but we can reduce their incidence for minor matters.  That offence of someone using a mobile phone while driving is a case that proves that point.  The photography present in police cars would have captured both the number plate of the car involved and a picture of the driver using a phone.  In most cases that would result in a fine arriving through the mail, but a follow up visit to the drivers door step would consolidate the seriousness of the offence - without the need for a dangerous pursuit.

It seems amazing that with the advance of modern technology todays cars can still be stolen by a youth with a screwdriver and a piece of wire.  Cars will never be immune to theft by professionals, but security could be vastly advanced at the cost of an higher sale price.    Just as the crash safety of the vehicle must achieve a government mandate, security should require similar intervention.  Theft prevention could make use of a star system to denote theft rating.

Police pursuits have become too common.  The reason for instigating a pursuit needs upgrading to remove simple police gratification and reserve the danger for serious threats to public safety.