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| Lessons: Pursuit Authority |
23-Jul-08
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| A pursuit contrary to Force policy led to an RTI in which five youths died. Several lessons can be learnt from the incident... |
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The Learning the Lessons Committee is a multi-agency committee established to disseminate and promote learning across the police service. Its members are: ACPO, APA, Home Office, IPCC, HMIC and the NPIA. The Committee produces bulletins with articles containing lessons from investigations. One such article is published below:
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An acting sergeant spotted a stolen car, driven by a teenager of15. After it ignored his request to stop, he pursued it with blue lights on for approximately 90 seconds. This was not enough time for the control room Supervisor to make a decision whether it was right to pursue the car. In the interim the officer, who was response-trained only, gave pursuit. He was not aware that, although ACPO Pursuit Guidance allowed initial pursuit by a response-trained driver, it was contrary to force policy, which imposed additional criteria.
Both cars were exceeding the speed limit for the area, the police car travelling at speeds of up to 67mph. The officer lost sight of the car as it travelled downhill, but as he approached a junction in the road, he saw the car on its side. It had collided with a wall, a lamppost and a parked car. The police car was approximately 12 seconds behind the car when it crashed. The driver and his four passengers, aged between 14 and 16, had all died instantly.
Three of the dead were taken to hospital shortly afterwards, as the officer called to the scene wanted the bodies removed from public view. The Crash Scene Investigator on arrival stopped the removal of the other two for another three hours in order to help the pathologist to ascertain positioning. They remained visible to passers-by as the Road Traffic Department did not have equipment to cover bodies or vehicles at the scene.
Identification of some of the dead took a long time. This meant some of the families became aware of the collision before they were officially notified.
Key lessons are for the force to clarify their pursuit policy; to review the way in which informing families was managed; to consider purchasing screens or tents for deployment in road traffic incidents.
To read the full Learning Report, click on the link below;
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