Drones are needed in every major police station in Queensland and cameras at all intersections if police are not able to chase fleeing cars, a union representative has argued.
Central region representative Bill Feldman slammed the Queensland Police Service's policy on pursuits, claiming it increased crime.
"We actually stop our marked police cars and get out to perform traffic duty, stopping other traffic and road users from interfering with the criminals doing burnouts in their stolen motor vehicles while giving the QPS the finger," Sgt Feldman, a former One Nation MP, wrote in the latest union journal.
"If we are still to be serious about a no-pursuit policy then we had better get serious about prevention and detention of offenders by having better cameras installed at all intersections and at intervals on every road."
But a Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman said to install cameras on every intersection and along at intervals on Queensland roads would be cost-prohibitive and divert funding from priority road projects.
"While we do have an extensive network of cameras, it only provides coverage of a portion of our expansive road network," she said.
The spokeswoman said CCTV cameras were maintained at key intersections and other locations across the state-controlled road network, for monitoring traffic flow and identifying crashes and hazards.
"We have agreements and regularly co-operate with the Queensland Police Service by providing footage of incidents from our state-wide network of traffic cameras to aid with their investigations," she said.
Sgt Feldman said police also should allow for drone technology, which was cheaper than helicopters, in every major police station.
He said that would allow officers to "track these car thieving, ram raiding, drug offending, dangerous driving brigands by stealth".
"Along with the information picked up in the public arena by drones and CCTV cameras, we need to amend the laws to make this time and date-stamped information available to law enforcement agencies as a matter of course, for the prosecution of offenders caught by camera," he said.
A Queensland Police spokeswoman said the QPS was an early adopter of drone technology, understood its benefits and had used it for a narrow range of operations.
"Using drones in a broader application is something that the service would consider subject to a range of factors including operational suitability, government support, funding and the appropriate approvals process," she said.
The spokeswoman said pursuits were allowed when officers had a reasonable belief that someone in the vehicle would create an imminent threat to life or had or may commit an act of murder or attempted murder. Other reasons could be if the person had issued threats to kill someone and had the capacity to carry it out or had committed an indictable offence.
"The imminent need to apprehend the person must be considered justifiable by the officers given the risks of pursuing," the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said police implemented a more restrictive pursuit policy in December 2011, following recommendations made by the coroner during an inquest.
"The QPS treats every pursuit as a serious matter and makes every effort to identify and apprehend the offenders," she said.
"The service will continue to apprehend offenders who evade interception, but pursuits will not be the principal means of apprehension."
Under laws passed in 2013, people who commit two offences of evading police can have their car confiscated and forfeited to the state.
Sgt Feldman also called for a change in the way evaders were charged, pointing to a US model.
"In Texas, as soon as an offender fails to stop for police (under lights and sirens), then every offence committed after the attempted stop is attributed to the offender," he wrote.
"If anyone is injured, any vehicle damaged, or any person killed, then that is on the offender: even if a police officer is injured at an intersection 10km away, or if a police car has a crash and damages his car."
Sgt Feldman also questioned why no "self-respecting true criminal beat journalist" had asked how many evade police offences were committed in Queensland, how many were solved and how many were solvable.
"I firmly believe the spike in the crime rate can be linked to the increase in evade police offences, most often committed following a crime and never solved," he said.
Fairfax Media asked QPS media for the number of evade police offences committed, but was advised there was a 10-working day wait for statistics requests.
Sgt Feldman was elected in Queensland as a member of One Nation in 1998, becoming the parliamentary leader, which he held until 1999, when he left to create the City Country Alliance.
0 comments
New User? Sign up