Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does the police reviewing their pursuit policy count as change?

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

I’m going to hold off on celebrating the police announcement this morning that they’re reviewing their pursuit policy.

Because I smell politics all over this, and I want to see what they’re doing before I give Police National Headquarters any praise.

What’s changed? Nothing, nothing’s changed. They’re still not chasing cars that are fleeing from them, are they? They’re just thinking about it.

Just overnight, there were two incidents in Auckland that we know of, where the cops weren’t allowed to chase.

One started in MT Eden. Police told them to stop, car took off and police didn’t chase, got the helicopter up and eventually found them in person.

Another, cops got info that someone was interfering with a vehicle in the central city. Fled the scene, police saw the car later in Grafton.

They wouldn’t stop, cops didn’t chase, Eagle spotted the car in Newmark, and two young people were arrested.

We clearly have a serious crime problem, serious enough for the police to feel like they need to front up in media. To tell us they’re reviewing their policy, but not serious enough to allow those officers to chase.

So right now, nothing’s changed.

And by the way, they’ve been reviewing this policy since May this year. How long do you need to review a policy for?

It’s already six months, it’s not that complicated. They can already see that it’s not working.

As Andrew Coster says, since he made the changes two years ago, it’s led to a significant increase in people running from the cops. And a significant decrease in the proportion of offenders identified.

Really.

We could’ve told them that would’ve happened. I’m not going to praise Andrew Coster for finally admitting what was obvious to us all.

I’ll save it for when he has the courage to actually reverse his mistake and let his cops chase.

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