Ritard_
Banned
lethal weapon ram the car into a garbage truck~
When the cops have their guns out opening fire on the car they are chasing, with innocent people around, then I'll listen to you.
What about the hoons racing their cars in the streets. Does anyone make a big deal when they kill innocent bypasses? No! Becuase they are not cops.
I think society have a problem with cops, thats all it is.
Does it matter? Most car thefts happen at night as well.Hoons race during the night though, majority of them do anyways.
Less people are on the road during the night.Does it matter? Most car thefts happen at night as well.
In live in Newcastle on a main road. Traffic never stops.Less people are on the road during the night.
are you seriousNot as much as the deal people have made about this
No, they are contingency scenarios. Sometime syou have to think "what if" in life.so far all your arguments have been "what if.." and they have been pretty silly ok
like i said, if my loved ones were in a car, i would rather it NOT be involved in a high speed pursuit, as this increases their chance of harm significantlyAnd what if something of value like another life was in that car.
I get what you are saying about the rules in which police pursuit cars should be changed, but that would lead to banning car chases all together. Some car chases have to occur. You cant just assume the criminal is stealing a car and thats all.
How do you know they are not going to drive at high speeds regardless of whether police are chasing them. They are criminals with criminal minds. I'd rather know they are being looked for and tracked by police, than knowing police are not going to do anything about it, and my children get murdered or whatever.like i said, if my loved ones were in a car, i would rather it NOT be involved in a high speed pursuit, as this increases their chance of harm significantly
:/
why would you want a car containing your children to be driven at high speed by a criminal
:/
Allowing police pursuits condones killing
CATHERINE NAYLOR
March 25, 2010 - 7:06AMForensic teams examine the scene of a crash after a police pursuit of a stolen car, in which four people died including a baby. Photo: Matina Neil
If you were to draw a picture of the main culprit in police chases, it would look like Justin Williams, the 23-year-old Queanbeyan man that killed himself and three others during a police pursuit in Canberra on Saturday.
Most offenders are young men with criminal records, no jobs, and no driver's licences. Most have either stolen a car, or committed a traffic offence.
But in the past two years in NSW, six people have died as a result of police pursuits – pursuits that are generally carried out over stolen cars, and traffic offences.
As Frances Rose, the mother of a pedestrian killed during a Canberra pursuit in 2005, said this week, we no longer have the death penalty in Australia for even the most heinous of crimes such as murder, so surely we shouldn't be sanctioning the deaths of car thieves, or of people who happen to get in their way. And that is what we are doing by allowing such pursuits to take place.
In Queensland, where the state coroner is about to hand down his findings on pursuit policy, police will no longer start a pursuit over a traffic infringement. Coupled with a ban on stolen car pursuits, that is the stance that Ms Rose and her husband, Ross Dunn, want adopted nationwide after the death of their 21-year-old daughter, Clea.
She was struck by a stolen Commodore being driven by a 14-year-old boy. He had driven out of a car park in central Canberra and police immediately started a pursuit. Within seconds, he had run a red light and turned into a bus interchange that was essentially a pedestrian thoroughfare. Witnesses put his speed at up to 100km/h. He hit Clea with such force she was thrown 20 metres down the road.
And just like Justin Williams, he had stolen cars before. Just like Williams, he was facing more theft charges when he took the car that wound up fatally injuring Clea.
During his sentencing, the court heard of the impact the crash had had on Clea's parents and sister, and that the boy was distraught about what he had done. In the public gallery, his own parents and sisters were in tears. The constables involved in the pursuit were deeply traumatised by the incident and are now helping Clea's family to train other police officers on the impact of police chases. There were no winners from that short, horrific pursuit four years ago.
Young men already have the worst driving record on our roads. Mix their testosterone with the adrenalin and fear that must tinge these pursuits and it becomes frightening – as the crash on Saturday indicated.
Police argue that banning pursuits of stolen vehicles will merely let criminals know that they can get away with it – but they already are. In Canberra, the driver will evade police in more than half of all pursuits.
And getting caught does little to deter criminals from stealing again. The NSW Corrective Services and Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research noted in 2005 that of all offenders released from prison in 2003 after serving time for property offences, more than half of them had gone on to steal again and to receive another prison sentence. And that doesn't take account of the plethora of offenders who escaped a custodial term.
Punishing people who engage in high-speed police chases under laws such as Skye's Law, passed by the NSW Government, has also been found to have little deterrent effect given the decision to engage in a pursuit is mostly an instinctive one, made at the spur of the moment.
Frances Rose and Ross Dunn argue that pursuits should only be carried out if the offender will otherwise put the public in danger. They say that for motor vehicle theft, a pursuit is just not worth it. It's time NSW agreed with them.
Clea's family have also been pushing for police training to be improved so that officers, most of whom are also men aged under 30, carry out better risk assessments before starting a pursuit and that they are more adequately supervised from the control room when following a car.
The family are calling for Australian governments to adopt other methods for tracing stolen cars and their drivers, such as the use of global positioning systems, or technology that enables engines to be switched off remotely. They also argue for better policing, including the closing of roads to corner drivers, rather than pursuing them.
Car theft, like any crime, cannot be condoned – 22,730 people had their cars stolen last year in NSW and that carries its own cost – but it does not warrant putting the lives of offenders like Justin Williams, or bystanders like four-month old Brody Opelaar, Skye Sassine, or Clea Rose, at risk.
One in 10 pursuits will end in a crash. One in 25 will result in a casualty. Yet constables are directed to follow pursuit guidelines and engage in a pursuit if they deem it safe and necessary. When it comes to stolen cars, they should not have to make that assessment.
The NSW Police state that their aim is to protect the community and property. Tellingly, the community comes first. Governments and senior officers who shape police pursuit policy would do well to recognise this, just as the constables do who have to make those split second decisions out on the road.
Frances Rose says it is up to voters, and their governments, to decide how comfortable they are with condoning the deaths of others, regardless of who they are, by allowing pursuits of stolen vehicles to continue.
A lump of shiny metal and a plush interior will never be as valuable as a human life, regardless of how that life is lived.
Catherine Naylor is a Fairfax journalist who covered Clea Rose's death and the subsequent court case.
Four People Die in Canberra After Police Chase