Key claims Crusher Collins not to blame for revenue gathering Police chase deaths

Minor crime led to all killer chases
All police chases which led to a record 14 deaths this year were sparked by minor offences, rather than serious crimes.

Figures released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show only one of the nine pursuits followed "suspected criminal offending" and that was minor a laser being shone at traffic from a motorway overbridge.

The driver fled police and crashed in Onehunga in September, killing Jaycherre Penelope Makakea and Joseph Jack Tahai, both 20.

Police listed the other reasons for pursuit as manner of driving (in four cases), suspected drink driver (two), speed (one) and unspecified (one).

There were 1793 pursuits in the year to October 11, resulting in 272 crashes, 88 injuries and 14 deaths.

The figures appear to challenge the policy of giving officers wide discretion to chase, which an American expert has criticised as unsafe.

Well, well, well. What do we have here? The 14 deaths caused by Police chases were actually for minor offences, let's imagine 14 people had died this year from shoplifting after fleeing Police, there would be an outcry, but because they are society's favourite pet hate - boy racers - not a flicker of concern from the pro-police choir we like to call the mainstream media.

These revenue gathering chase policies, let me say that again to make the redneck spittle thicker, THE REVENUE GATHERING CHASE POLICIES are to blame alongside Crusher Collins hulk go smash routine. Crusher Collins couldn't get the tv cameras down to a car crushing yard fast enough to crush cars so she could look rough and tough on crime, yet today on Breakfast (why aren't they letting that much better Corin Dan host rather than the sulky other guy?) John Key claimed the harder law and order crap had NOTHING to do with an increased jump in people fleeing Police, that's right, Crusher Collins and her car crushing crusade has NOTHING to do with these deaths whatsoever.

Yeah right.

Let's remind ourselves of what the Candor Trust who are quoted in this news story had to say about the revenue gathering requirements and how they impact chases...

The Goddard report identified that in the last 5 years almost all chase deaths started with minor infringements that would almost certainly have not ended in death with no chase. 1 in 4 chases ends with a bang. We're not talking axe murderers here - we're talking letting Aime people get away with being 10k over the limit as the cops allowed before the quota software was bought in. Chase deaths happen inevitably in the first few minutes of chases as people are paniced. A 50% rise in police highway hours (funded by the revenue approach) took highway crash costs from 1.61billion to 1.6 billion - it overrode the safety savings made by a lot of safety engineering. Minister Hawkins signed off use of the quota software in 2003 explained to him by Rob Robinson as "a large increase in tickets" (meeting 30 National Road Safety Committee). The software is a prototype invented in NZ by Dr Guria and others at MoT (it sets district police quotas for drink drive busts and speed tickets) and is likely for roll out in the 2nd world under the tutelage of the new Wellington based agency Roadpol (global police under UN) which Rob Robinson heads up. 3 early reviews in 2005 found that the quota software - a formula created as part of the MOT RAM project "to develop and refine a resource allocation model for road safety" - had reverse to intended effects. It increases crash trauma as the dose of quotas rises.

...now every time I've brought this up, pro-police red neck apologists scream 'YOU WANT THE PEOPLE TO ESCAPE BECAUSE YOU LOVE CRIMINALS' blah blah blah (red neck Police apologists are never the smartest of folk), I always counter that other countries have adapted their Police chase policy, yet we don't, so what does an American police expert think of our chase policy (this will make the pro-police red neck apologists gasp)...

Geoff Alpert, a consultant to police in North America, described New Zealand's approach as out of step with a trend to restrict chases to violent offenders.

Discretion had been "restricted drastically" in much of the US and Canada because of the the number of fatalities and the enormous expense arising from pursuit crashes, Dr Alpert told the Herald in September.

Public opinion in the US had swung away from pursuits of minor offenders because of the number and severity of crashes.

...well, well, well - we are out of step. By continuing with a dangerous revenue gathering chase policy coupled with car crushing crap by Crusher Collins we are willingly allowing people to die from flawed social policy for minor crime.

This isn't being challenged because of our blind devotion to the Police that believes anyone questioning the Police is a gang member.