Speeding drivers now more likely to get police pursuit reprieve

Friday, 18 December 2020

Kenneth McCaul was killed after his car was T-Boned by a fleeing driver in Christchurch in October 2019. (File photo)

Police will no longer pursue drivers who are speeding, acting suspiciously or fleeing for no apparent reason in a major shake up of controversial chase procedures.

An internal police email leaked to Stuff advises staff not to pursue fleeing drivers unless the threat posed “outweighs the risk of harm by the pursuit”.

The revised policy, which has not been publicly announced, was emailed on December 10, stating the need to “change a culture that is decades old”.

Between 2009 and 2018, 67 people died during police pursuits.

The wreckage of a vehicle which crashed during a police pursuit in January 2019, killing three.

* Fleeing driver allegedly ran at least three red lights before fatal crash

* Police must chase or 'surrender the road to drunks and boy racers'

* Teens cannot make logical decisions during police pursuits, psychologist says

Friends and family remember Kenneth McCaul, who was killed while driving to work by a car involved in a police pursuit. (video first published in October, 2019)

There have been several high-profile fatalities resulting in criticism of police since then, including Kenneth McCaul, who was killed when a fleeing driver t-boned him on his way to work in 2019.

Frontline police say chasing 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.

The email Stuff obtained was sent by Wellington road policing manager Inspector Wade Jennings to frontline police in the district.

The “revised” policy suggests “changing mindsets, our pursuing decisions, and how we resolve them”.

“Pursuits are a high-risk tactical option, it is very difficult to place black and white rules so there is going to be a lot of educating and discussions,” Jennings wrote.

The email said a pursuit would only be justified when the threat posed by those in the vehicle prior to signalling the driver to stop and the need to immediately apprehend the driver and/or passengers “outweighs the risk of harm by the pursuit”.

“The big part of that is, what was the threat posed prior to signalling, some examples like, just an ION (infringement offence notice) offence, looked like they were speeding, 1C (person or car acting suspiciously), motorbikes with no plates, rider with no helmet or they just fled for no apparent reason, obviously you signal them to stop but engaging in a pursuit is not likely to meet the new threshold.”

As had always been the case, a driver failing to stop or remain stopped was not in itself sufficient reason to pursue. Investigation was the preferred first step, the email said.

Glen Mcallister, 16, Craig Mcallister, 13, and Brooklyn Taylor, 13, died when they hit road spikes while trying to evade police in Christchurch in January 2019.

“A very basic question to ask yourself is ‘is what I am chasing worth the risk?’.”

The email said the change in mindset was “not going to change overnight”. Officers will need to complete online training.

The revised policy was about “reflecting and getting everyone operating on the same page”.

“It’s virtually impossible to put fleeing driver incidents into simple boxes of dos and do nots – they are high risk, pump the adrenalin of catching the bad person, but they can, in an instant, go terribly wrong.”

Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft, who has previously called for an end to pursuits of young drivers, said the change was a 'positive step forward' and would save lives.

Chris Cahill, Police Association president, says more police on the roads will provide a greater deterrent than larger fines.

'I don't think it's weak, I don't think it's soft, I think it's a recognition that pursuits themselves, especially when there's children or young people driving in the car, can cause some reckless and foolhardy driving that puts lives at risk.

'Almost always the young people and children can be caught the next day … and sometimes I think the courageous thing is to take the heat out of the situation.'

Risk of more fleeing drivers

Police Association president Chris Cahill said the revised policy aligned more with overseas models.

Officers had raised concerns that the policy would lead to more fleeing driver incidents, he said.

“The counter-argument is the dangers and the deaths that result in these do not warrant that risk of pursuing it in the first place.”

The Independent Police Conduct Authority believes it is being misinterpreted by media reports. (Video first published in December 2017)

Officers were now held to account for fleeing driver incidents “to a degree that’s never been before”, Cahill said.

'Our members are constantly criticised because of the outcomes of pursuits so if they're not going to get the public and or legal support then why should they do them if they're putting themselves at risk?'

Cahill said he supported the revised policy but accepted it was not a “complete answer”. He believed the only solution was finding a way to immobilise motor vehicles.

The driver of the fleeing car that killed McCaul – 17-year-old Jayden Richard Breakwell – had been pursued by police at high speed through seven red lights before the crash.

An Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) investigation found officers should not have started the pursuit and that there were “multiple occasions” when it should have been abandoned.

Te Ari Taylor’s brother Brooklyn Taylor died along with Craig McAllister, 13, and Glen McAllister, 16, when the stolen car they were in crashed and burst into flames after driving through police road spikes in Christchurch in January last year.

She welcomed the revised policy and said police should not pursue young drivers.

“I’m all for that … they should not chase.”

The nearly two years since his death had been “horrible”, she said.

Connor Talaimanu died after a police pursuit in Auckland in October 2017. His father says he supports any initiative to reduce harm caused by pursuits.

“Time heals but it does not change the fact he’s not here. He’s such a huge part of our family, if only we could turn back the clock.”

Andrew Talaimanu’s son, Connor, was one of two people killed during a pursuit on an Auckland motorway in 2017.

The 29-year-old and Sharina Storm Meuli, 25, were passengers in a car being driven by Prushya Chaichumphon, who sped up to 160kmh while fleeing and made dangerous manoeuvres across four lanes of the motorway, before crashing into a tree.

A police officer drove 200kmh in pursuit.

The IPCA ruled the chase should have been abandoned, the officer acted dangerously and should have faced a criminal investigation.

‘Too many innocent people are dying’

Talaimanu told Stuff he supported any initiatives to reduce the harm caused by pursuits.

“Unless someone is holding someone hostage at gunpoint and there’s a serious threat to life, we shouldn't be chasing a car full stop … too many innocent people are dying, for a stolen car,” he said.

He believed if police had better technology, they could locate offenders more easily.

A review of fleeing driver events, the first joint effort on the subject by police and IPCA, made eight recommendations when released in March last year.

The report found there was a lack of understanding by officers around the risk posed by starting a pursuit, and most staff assessed the risk without appreciating how a pursuit may create or exacerbate the risk.

It found a number of police took unnecessary risks to catch fleeing drivers for relatively minor offences.

In a statement, a police spokeswoman said the review found while police’s policy was sound, it was not always being used consistently or as it should be.

“There has been no change to the policy criteria for initiating a pursuit, there are no specific limitations.”

The 'slight rewording” of the policy was recognising police needed to better “articulate the intent” of the policy so staff could apply it consistently.

“It is about reminding them to think about threat, exposure, necessity, and response before they even signal a driver to stop,” the spokeswoman said.

Police Minister Poto Williams said the fleeing driver policy was an 'operational matter' for police.

However, she said she supported the intent behind rewording the existing policy to align with the joint police/IPCA review recommendations.