Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan flags review of ACT Policing police pursuit policy

The fresh policy review was flagged by ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan during the annual report hearings in the ACT Assembly on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner Gaughan told the hearing that since August 1, Operation Toric has resulted in the arrest of 122 people who have been charged with 310 offences including aggravated and dangerous driving, driving at police, taking a motor vehicle without consent, drug driving and firearms offences.

Of those charged, 39 were on bail for other offences, 16 were on good behaviour orders, five were on intensive corrections orders and eight were on parole.

"What we're finding is that these particular offenders, particularly those who are stealing cars and getting involved in high speed pursuits, are of risk to all members of the community, not just police officers," he said.

"A lot of these offences are occurring cross-jurisdictionally ... it's a cross-border issue."

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Police Minister Mick Gentleman said he had talked to the Chief Police Officer about his concerns regarding the so-called "limited pursuit policy", which was introduced some four years ago.

Internally, intelligence gleaned by police during Operation Toric has led them to believe offenders are "gaming the system" in that they understand, in general terms, what the current "limited" police pursuit guidelines are and when chased, drive on the wrong side of the road and engage in other dangerous and risky driving behaviour, giving police no choice but to break off the pursuit.

Asked by the committee about any correlation between the change to the police pursuit policy and the current escalated behaviour, Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said "no policy or legislation should say still, it always needs to be reviewed, we always needs to be nimble and we should admit when we think things need to be looked at".

"The pursuit policy is actively being looked at," he said.

"We have engaged someone external to the AFP who is doing that under the leadership of [Commander] Linda Champion.

"It will form part of a case review in relation to [Operation] Toric going forward and we will look at that in relation as to whether we need to change our policy."

However, he added that he believed "pursuits are inherently dangerous; they are inherently dangerous for my members, they are inherently dangerous to the community so when we can avoid it we will and we should".

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Police pursuits have long been a contentious issue in the ACT and last underwent a major review by the Australian Federal Police back in 2015, which was followed in 2018 by the adoption of new protocols.

These new guidelines, introduced under former Chief Police Officer Rudi Lammers after lengthy consultation with the ACT government, permitted police to initiate pursuits on Canberra's roads only when there was a serious risk to public safety, or if there was a major crime planned or under way involving serious injury or death.

The 2005 hit-run death in Civic of 21-year-old student Clea Rose is widely regarded as the trigger for a major reassessment of police pursuits in Canberra.

Ms Rose was struck and killed when crossing Mort Street in Civic by a 14-year-old offender driving a stolen car. Police had chased after the stolen car over a short distance before Ms Rose was struck and killed and in the public outcry which followed, were apportioned with significant blame from some parts of the community.

The officers involved were subsequently absolved of blame and found to have correctly followed the guidelines that existed at the time.

Other road deaths followed in subsequent years in which some attribution was given to police being in pursuit, or following the vehicle involved.

The ACT Greens waded heavily into debate in a 2011 discussion paper that stated that "experience and data over many years has shown that most people chased by police are not serious criminals. More often than not, drivers who flee are guilty of no more than a traffic offence or suspicion of driving a stolen car".

In the wake of the arrest of the recidivist offenders during Operation Toric, the basis on which this assertion was made 11 years ago has proved incorrect, with the Chief Police Officer stating that the majority of car thieves in Canberra now "use vehicles to commit other, far more serious crimes".

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