Police And High Speed

[d00dz]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/police...8191720268.html

Interesting....

NSW police involved in high-speed car pursuits have lied, ignored commands to stop and switched radio frequencies to dodge official supervision while taking part in chases, internal service documents reveal.

Some area commanders ignored NSW Police's own state pursuit management committee when it asked them to "please explain" the action of seemingly out-of-control officers, according to letters and memos obtained under freedom of information laws. The former deputy commissioner Dave Madden told area commanders a year ago he was "extremely concerned" about lack of supervision of pursuits.

This was just before a Herald investigation revealed that 54 people - including nine passers-by and two police officers - had died in the previous 10 years as a result of NSW police pursuits.

While Mr Madden refused to comment to the Herald, a memo and an email show he called for "every police officer to consider their driving behaviour" in the light of deaths, injury and property damage caused by pursuits.

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"Too often, pursuit and urgent-duty driving occurs without involvement of supervisors and/or duty officers," he wrote as he introduced a regular review of radio tapes to crack down on police not complying with policy.

The Herald has since established that the deaths of at least 62 people have been linked to NSW police pursuits in the past 11 years. Some police have flouted the service driving policy for years, while their managers apparently turned a blind eye, the documents reveal.

Four years ago the state pursuit management committee

chairman, Inspector Ron Dorrough, told area commanders the commissioner wanted to curb "the increased and at times flagrant disregard" for the service's safe driving policy.

Police in the field were providing information about high-speed pursuits and collisions so inaccurate or false that it was fraudulent, Inspector Alan Champion, an internal affairs detective, told his fellow committee members in May 1999.

Field commanders and managers were allowing this to happen, he said in a memo. "Under the edict of remaining operational and 'catching the crooks' they are condoning what cannot be tolerated," he said.

In 1997 the committee heard that some police "were not reporting pursuits to avoid being terminated by the duty operations inspector or supervisor". The senior driver in one chase directed all vehicles behind him to end the pursuit.

Even though they included caged trucks that are not allowed to give chase, the drivers did not obey.

The following year the committee heard that a local area commander refused to downgrade a police driver with a gold licence to silver after being involved in five collisions over two years during pursuits because "all offenders were arrested". In 1999 the committee was told that police in some cases did not answer radio operators, failed to give information to those supervising the pursuit when asked and were "providing untruthful information".

It was also told of cases where supervisors terminated pursuits, but police kept the offending vehicle "in sight" - meaning they had disobeyed orders.

In 2002 Sergeant Stephen Geaney, of the Sydney Communications Centre, reported that on several times the information that police involved in pursuits entered into a computerised system "differed dramatically" to the information they gave radio operators during the course of the chase.

Committee minutes last November show its members were still concerned about a "general lack of knowledge on the Safe Driving Policy police-wide".

The NSW Police Association's Mick Hilder noted some local area commands were adopting the policy while others were not.

Inspector John Hartley, the traffic services branch commander, was still writing "please explain" letters to local area commanders about individual pursuits failing to comply with the safe driving policy.

He said yesterday that a policy review had found panels overseeing safe driving "were not operating robustly enough".

Local area and region commanders now had to be more accountable to safe-driver committees. "Access to non-recorded channels has been restricted, which means that police no longer have the ability to broadcast local transmissions including police pursuits that would avoid detection of VKG [police radio operations]," he said.

[Sl!m]

read that in the paper yesterday..

and we are the hoons??

bastards

[scathing]

Just remember kiddies, its only P platers in turbo cars that speed excessively and drive like idiots...............

Edited October 6, 2005 by scathing

[Ashy Larry]

Just remember kiddies, its only P platers in turbo cars that speed excessively and drive like idiots............... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NO MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID!

MIKE

[someonestolecc]

I coulda told ya that year ago.. had coppers lining me up and revving at me in my old 351 heh heh.

Point is we're a civilian and they've got the uniform to hide behind.