Child killed in Police Pursuit - do we stop pursuits - or increase penalties?

Or something else???


Either way, this is terrible....

Baby dead in police chase tragedy in Constitution Hill

I am sure that some will call for an end to police pursuits.

Not me....

Imo, the human slime that run from police have no regard for public safety or decency so I don't see how banning pursuits improves that. When they catch this guy (or guys) - and they will catch them - what will they be charged with? Seems it might be "Dangerous Driving causing death" - which according to wiki carries a maximum term of 14 years in the event (among other things) that the assailant was trying to escape the police.

Well maybe it needs to be a lot longer than 14 years.

Various US jurisdictions have what they call "Felony Murder" - where "an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the commission of a felony, the offender can be charged with murder. And, any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony".

So maybe it is time to up the ante on people who have no respect both for our laws and for the fine men and women or our police services that uphold them for us.

/end of rant
 
Well they can't commit more crime while they are behind bars and hopefully it will deter others.

Its like criminology 101 that harsher sentences don't work to reduce crime.

Criminology 201 says there's a considerable body of evidence to say it actually increases levels of crime in the community.
 
So what's the answer then, if not locking them up then... what? Rehab? I have serious doubts as to the efficacy of that approach.

Rehab... more importantly though, where do they go after rehab, no point throwing them back into the environment they started in.

We've had a similar discussion on somersoft previously.

I agree with above, rehabilitation however there needs to be some serious work done to transform the environment that created the problem in the first place. That isn't in the ghettos, it is in society as a whole. (Yeah, gradual building up to big transformation required).
 
So what's the answer then, if not locking them up then... what? Rehab? I have serious doubts as to the efficacy of that approach.

The answer is to call off police chases which endanger the public. Some police are cowboys and without enough driver training which cause tragedies like this. OP thinks they should be chased but then accidents like this will continue to happen if the suspect is determined to get away.
 
The answer is to call off police chases which endanger the public.

If that is the case then surely you would have a no chase rule.

Because - unless you limit police cars to the speed limit (eg. 60 in a 60 zone, 100 in a 100 zone) then the car that is attempting to escape has to speed over and above that limit.

Which - the police keep telling us - is when things get dangerous.

Some police are cowboys and without enough driver training which cause tragedies like this.

Not sure how you can blame cops for this one.

They're not the ones who first drove through a fence and into a residential yard.

(I understand that there is some confusion as to which car struck the toddler, but the media I have seen is indicating it was the stolen car).

OP thinks they should be chased but then accidents like this will continue to happen if the suspect is determined to get away.

Which comes back to the fundamental question of whether chases should occur.

Fine, stop chases then.

But 14 years jail for someone who seems to have so little regard for the life of those around them while in control of a car still strikes me as a slap on the wrist.

Driving so dangerously is no different, in my mind, to someone spraying bullets from a weapon in whatever direction with no care at all for what or who they hit.
 
They don't even know if it was the police who hit the child or the escapees. These people were wanted anyway - would've been caught eventually, as has already been said.
Apparently the police drove through a park full of kids at 100km/hr.
I'm all for the police but this is all adrenaline junkie stuff. Someone's going to be getting nightmares for the rest of his life.
 
Supposing you cannot chase them (a no chase rule), then how do you catch them?

Good old fashioned police work?

Cameras on every corner?

GPS tracking dots in every vehicle?
 
Its like criminology 101 that harsher sentences don't work to reduce crime.

Criminology 201 says there's a considerable body of evidence to say it actually increases levels of crime in the community.

Works everytime...

For the time they are behind bars, they haven't committed one crime.

Problem solved.
 
I'm making up a few stats here but here goes.

Until a few years, in QLD, the average fine by a magistrate was about $300 for failing to stop for a Police vehicle trying to stop you (evading Police). In comparison, the ticketable fine for advertising a vehicle for sale without a safety certificate was substantially more.

So, the Government highlighted their concerns and changed the law to make magistrate's accountable. This law increased the penalty to what became a minimum $5000 fine or jail time.

Some Magistrates/Judges didn't like the government restricting their freedom, so they found an interpretation in law to avoid giving the minimum sentencing penalties and would give suspended sentences with no actual jail time served and no $5000 fine.

Rightly so, the government then had to change law again to try and wind in these magistrates.

Once again, a few cowboys in every occupation ruin it for the rest.
 
Baby, child or whatever, does it matter, someone got killed. Just like a plane crash, all the media seems to care about is if any Australians died.

This country is already a nanny state; how many new laws do we introduce just because of one accident? It's a bit of a joke. What next, mobile phones are banned for kids because some kid swallowed one and died?
 
except that once you know that you will be behind bars for considerable amount of time you might as well make a run for it.

they run anyway...that is a poor excuse we hear all the time


For once, I'd love to hear people stand up for the victims, instead of the criminals.

Bad enough the magistrates won't even enforce the sentencing...from the sounds of it.
 
they run anyway...that is a poor excuse we hear all the time


For once, I'd love to hear people stand up for the victims, instead of the criminals.

Bad enough the magistrates won't even enforce the sentencing...from the sounds of it.

they run because they are being chased. if you stop chasing them - they will stop running. it strange that your idea of standing up for the victims is to create more of them, when poorly trained cops turn our streets into GTA
 
they run because they are being chased. if you stop chasing them - they will stop running. it strange that your idea of standing up for the victims is to create more of them, when poorly trained cops turn our streets into GTA

I put my trust in the police, to use their best judgement.

Sometimes it doesn't have a good outcome...as in this case, which is sad.

Who says these cops were poorly trained?
 
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