Melbourne car attack: Police members hit out at no-pursuit policy in wake of Bourke Street deaths
Updated
The Victorian coroner will investigate the deaths of five people in a car rampage in Melbourne's CBD, including the police handling of the incident, and an earlier decision to call off a pursuit before the suspect reached the city.
Key points:
- Police officers questioning Victoria's no-pursuit policy after Friday's CBD car attack
- On Friday an initial pursuit was called off hours before the vehicle was seen doing burnouts in the city centre
- One police member describes no-pursuit policy as "cowardly", another calls for review
It comes as police members say the contentious no-pursuit policy is leaving police hamstrung and needs a complete overhaul in light of Friday's attack.
Five people died after the driver drove through a busy Bourke Street footpath on Friday afternoon, while 30 people are still being treated for their injuries.
One veteran police officer told the ABC the families of those killed and injured had every right to question why police did not do everything they could to stop him earlier.
"The no-pursuit policy is a disgrace, it's cowardly," he said.
"There was ample opportunity to stop him in the two hours before he reached the city, but the order was not to pursue."
Victoria Police called off an initial pursuit of 26-year-old suspect Dimitrious Gargasoulas after police alleged he stabbed his brother in Windsor and took his girlfriend hostage, hours before he reached the city.
At 11:45am, police armed with guns and tasers tried to pull the driver over on the Bolte Bridge, but the pursuit was called off as he was driving dangerously.
He was filmed doing burnouts outside Flinders Street station at 1:30pm.
In 2015, Victorian police officers became subject to new restrictions on conducting pursuits following 13 deaths in five years, but they have since been amended after the change sparked outrage from the Police Association and its members.
Despite the changes, the policy remains unpopular.
"If it was my family that had been impacted I would be very, very angry," the veteran officer said.
"Victoria Police has known that this was always a potential problem with the pursuit policy. This was always going to be an outcome of the pursuit policy.
"As an organisation we have let Victorians down."
Earlier on Saturday, Victoria's chief of police defended his officers' handling of the car pursuit, saying he was "rock solid" behind the decisions police made while trying to apprehend the driver.
"I am satisfied from my perspective — I emphasise my perspective — all decisions that our officers made were in the interests of trying to provide community safety. I am confident in that," Graham Ashton said.
Another police officer told the ABC that under the current policy, if the offender's identity is known, as was the case on Friday, the order will come to call off the pursuit and track them down later.
"There are dozens of pursuits called off and nothing happens, but we don't have a crystal ball so we never know," he told the ABC.
"It's the first time this has happened, but it won't be the last."
One senior police officer is still trying to come to terms with what he saw in Bourke Street.
"It was one of the most horrific things I could have imagined," he said.
"Who would have expected him to have done what he did?"
He said the current pursuit policy needed to be reviewed.
"It's so convoluted, it's as if we have become too scared to police," he said.
"Things have changed so much, we used to try and apprehend offenders, with the public's safety always at the forefront."
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, police, law-crime-and-justice, laws, melbourne-3000
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