Off the wire
• 1st LD Writethru: Magnitude 6.5 quake strikes off coast of Japan's Kanto region, slight sea level changes possible  • Dollar changes hands in upper 100 yen range in early trade in Tokyo  • Threat of "lone wolf" terrorism rises: Aussie PM  • URGENT: Magnitude 6.5 quake strikes off coast of Japan's Kanto region  • Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, Sept. 23  • Aussie share market slightly higher at open  • ATP Saint Petersburg results  • Spanish La Liga standings  • ATP Metz results  • Spanish La Liga results  
You are here: 　 Home

West Aussie police union proposes legalizing ramming cars off road

Xinhua, September 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Police in Western Australia (WA) are campaigning for the power to be able to "nudge" cars off the road during pursuits.

The demand by the WA police union would make officers in Australia's westernmost state the only police force in the country legally able to perform the controversial precision immobilization technique (PIT maneuver).

The proposal by the police union would also guarantee officers who perform the maneuver escape and legal repercussions if it resulted in a fatal crash.

Police said the demands come after a police chase in WA on Saturday resulted in a 16-year-old driver who refused to pull over for police crashing with another vehicle, immediately killing a couple in their 60s.

George Tilbury, president of the police union, said the crash could have been avoided if police were able to stop the 16-year-old with a PIT maneuver.

"A PIT maneuver is generally when police are pursuing a vehicle they move alongside the rear quarter panel of the vehicle, they give that vehicle a nudge, it makes it spin out, lose control and then police can apprehend the offenders," Tilbury said at a press conference in comments published by the Guardian on Friday.

Tilbury acknowledged that the maneuver, along with other tactics such as using roadblocks, could be deadly for the person being chased.

"The priority here is to protect innocent members of the community and police officers who are doing their jobs," he said.

"If offenders decide to flee from police they suffer the consequences.

"There is no protection for police officers at this present time if they take proactive action to force vehicles off the road.

Acting commissioner of WA police Gary Dreibergs said the proposal was too risky.

"The underlying principle of everything relative to pursuits nationally is the principal of safety first, and that's the safety of police officers, safety for the community -- that's just the number one thing in our mind at all times," Dreibergs told 6PR, a WA radio station, on Wednesday.

"If they ram a vehicle and it... doesn't work, the offending vehicle rolls, there's young people in that vehicle, regardless of what they've been doing, and they die."

Police pursuits in WA have tripled from 322 in 2010 to 1,029 in 2015. Endit