I’m sorry, What?
The solution to the deeply flawed and lethal Police pursuit policy is to…..arm the cops?
Would drivers be as likely to flee if NZ police were armed?
Openly-armed policing engenders a tone change – they’re not to be messed with. And most offenders don’t. On this side of the Tasman, there’s an insidiously growing tendency, particularly among feckless young men, to see them as fair game and “have a go.”
…what special level of fuckwittedness is this?
Let’s be clear, if we armed the bloody NZ cops with their alpha personality mutations, I would bloody flee the cops too, and I don’t even drive!
Arming the NZ Police as a means to lower pursuit chases is as stupid as suggesting arming teachers to stop mass shootings at schools.
Our chase policy is insane, it is deeply flawed and it leads to death. Public policy shouldn’t be designed to kill people.
Brian Rudman sets the scene…
Between October 2016 and September last year, seven deaths and 552 crashes were recorded as a result of police chases. This mayhem is not new. There’s a long history of between one in four and one in five of police pursuits ending in a wrecked car, along with ambulance loads of drivers, passengers and bystanders left maimed or dead. Six people have died in police pursuits in the last five months alone.
Often the chase is triggered by something trivial like a minor traffic infringement.
…this is a point often ignored. Trivial traffic infringements shouldn’t end in death yet our ‘respect my authority’ cultural mindset trumps basic public safety.
If we look at the facts we see time and time and time again the Police lie about when they stopped chasing, the Police lie about radio malfunctions, the Police lie about distances travelled. Once the red mist sets in, Police are too excited by the chase to stop…
We don’t need any more reviews. In 2009, then chair of the IPCA, Justice Lowell Goddard delivered a scathing critique, questioning “the value of pursuits that begin over driving offences such as speeding, careless driving or suspected drunk driving without observable, immediate threat to public safety”. She said “there is little benefit to the public in police taking action that is likely to make a potentially dangerous situation worse.”
She noted that in the previous five years, pursuits had resulted in 24 deaths and 91 serious injuries, and that only 47 of the victims were the fleeing driver. Subsequently, the IPCA has continued to criticise the pursuit policy.
…we need a rational debate about Police pursuit policy that can’t be derailed by ‘respect my authority’ as a response.
What this issue most certainly does not require is more guns.
I mean police officers are fore ever finding ways to embarrass the uniform in new and interesting ways. There isn’t much we can do about it because of all the testosterone. When the chase is on and the blood gets pumping you’re going to make miscalculations no matter what. So you have to constrain officers with procedure and policy to not only protect themselves but the public as well.
I mean pointing guns for traffic offences is a little over the top. But if they where chasing an armed offender on a meth fuelled rampage then they can go in heavy with AR-15s, they can already do that with in current laws. Making sure they can go after every one with a gun is not our way. We just don’t have the gun culture to justify this shift in kiwi culture.
I’d also making it a parliamentary-level issue any time an officer winds up having to actually use lethal force, so that they aren’t being investigated by there buddies.
Stop chasing them is the answer, mostly they are wanted on silly minor charges. As the Lemon and Dog guide person said on TV the problem is the adrenalin rush that the cops get in the chase. Never mind the kids behind the wheel. Given the comments from some you would honestly think that they have never ever disobeyed the law!
Our anti chase website has been prompted by this depraved fuckwit to add a role of honor for browncoat irrational 4th estaters who support the hate crime against youth of pursuit til fiery crash death over SFA. Same pp who would cry croc tears over 2 dogs being burnt to death in a ute, dont bat an eyelid at similar hate crimes by rotten egg members of police. Studies show police do not disciplin their own for badly conducted fatal chases, they only disciplin or sack officers where chases damage police vehicles. Definition of in force boyracers promoted beyond their brain power.
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