Home office plans to give police pursuit drivers better legal protection
Written by News on 02/05/2019
Police drivers who chase down suspects will be given better legal protection under plans being drawn up by the Home Office.
The move comes after the Met Police caused controversy by showing its tactic of ramming moped and motorbike suspects off the roads late last year.
At the time the Metropolitan Police Federation said its members risked their “livelihood and liberty” by leaving themselves open to prosecution.
The Home Office held a public consultation and says there is overwhelming support for plans to introduce a new legal test for police drivers facing proceedings.
It would mean that an officer’s expert training would have to be taken into account if a prosecution was under consideration.
Currently trained officers are treated in the same way as normal members of the public in careless and dangerous driving cases.
The new test would cover those responding to an emergency call. General rules covering police vehicles’ ability to break speed limits and ignore road signs will also be reviewed
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: “It’s vital police officers feel confident and protected when pursing suspects on the roads or responding to an emergency.
“It’s also crucial that we send a clear message that criminals – whether in cars or on mopeds – cannot escape arrest simply by driving recklessly.”
The Police Federation for England and Wales, which has long campaigned for a change in the law, welcomed the proposals. Chairman John Apter said: “It is good that Her Majesty’s Government has agreed to this much needed change in legislation to reflect police driver training.”
But he added that the plans had come too late for many police officers who had already faced lengthy court proceedings.
Theresa May defended what she called the police’s “robust” tactics in December but Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott criticised them, saying “Police are not above the law”.
In March this year the Met police released figures suggesting that moped crime had almost halved in London from 12,540 offences in the 12 months to January 2019, compared to 24,398 the previous year.
(c) Sky News 2019: Home office plans to give police pursuit drivers better legal protection
