Should Queensland Police stop pursuit of stolen cars?
QUESTION
Hi John,
I love the commentary that you make regarding politics and police policy. In particular, your previous video discussion on the NSW police policy on high-speed chases of stolen cars.
This article mentions that vehicle thefts are on the increase in Queensland; buckling the national trend of a decrease in car thefts: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/brisbane/townsville-teens-road-rampage-leaves-police-officer-with-spinal-injuries-amid-astounding-spike-in-car-thefts/ar-BB1deczD?ocid=ientp
Do you think it is time for Queensland Police to adopt the same high-speed pursuit policy that the NSW police force currently upholds?
Geoff
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ANSWER
Hey Geoff,
Thank you very much for your interest in my reports.
Sobering topic mate - it’s a social problem, pretty clearly. I doubt a change in pursuit policy would make much difference.
Police need better and more regular driver training - especially in terms of risk management during pursuit driving. (Losing control of a police car and scoring an own goal with bonus spinal injuries is unacceptable on a public road. It’s unacceptable at work. These were joyriding teenagers, not Al Qaeda with a bag full of highly enriched uranium.)
They also need better training in respect of road spike deployment, etc. If teenagers can avoid deployed road spikes, the deployment was flawed, clearly. Countermeasures of this nature need to be operationally decisive.
It’s actually very hard to steal a modern car without the keys - what we’re not seeing here is a public service campaign promoting car key security. Odds-on, what these little scumbags did was identify a target vehicle in a driveway, then just open the front door, lift the keys from the table just inside the door, and drive away.
If the keys were unavailable, you’d negate the threat.
Realistically, the only other way to do it is to carjack the driver. (Law of unintended consequences - if people made their keys more secure at home, carjackings would increase…)
Chasing teenagers in a stolen car is like catching terrorists at the airport - it’s the worst way to solve the problem.
JC
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