WA Police Union president calls for better officer protection after Kimberley police car rammings

WA Police Union president Dave Flaherty has called for new protection for officers involved in car pursuits after two police vehicles were allegedly rammed in the Kimberley over the past month.

Mr Flaherty said that currently, if a police officer in WA was involved in a pursuit and something went wrong, they could be liable under the law.

He says he would like WA laws to come into line with other states, like South Australia and Northern Territory, where police have protection if something goes wrong during a pursuit, known as “good faith” laws.

“We want to make sure that police officers have appropriate protection,” Mr Flaherty said.

“A police car makes intentional contact with it, with a stolen vehicle that loses control, rolls over, someone gets killed or seriously injured, and police officers are suddenly then the firing line of being sued and criminally charged for doing their job. That’s our concern.

“We’re not asking for the wheel to be reinvented. This already exists in other states, in South Australia and Northern Territory, they have what’s called ‘good faith’ legislation.

“So if police officers are operating in good faith and they’re doing their job honestly and their actions are honest, they’re not liable for the consequences. If it goes pear-shaped they have some protection under the law.”

It follows four car pursuits allegedly involving juveniles in the Kimberley in the past month, with two incidents involving the youths allegedly deliberately ramming police vehicles.

The incidents have raised concerns locally that a 2021-22 trend of intentional rammings against police had reared its head in the region again.

Back then, the incidents were allegedly spurred on by social media challenges, where youths would try to one-up each other by committing more serious crimes.

The trend was also part of a broader wave of youth crime that saw Operation Regional Shield deployed to the Kimberley in early 2022.

But speaking to the Broome Advertiser, Kimberley Superintendent John Hutchinson said the recent incidents were isolated and not part of a broader trend.

“It’s definitely not part of a trend,” he said. “We haven’t found any evidence to suggest that this is part of an ongoing social media challenge or anything like that.

“We see our crime figures for stolen vehicles, and this type of offending is on a downward trend when we look at the five-year averages.

“We’ve charged a few people in regard to those offences, predominantly juveniles, and we’ll continue to investigate with a view to bringing those responsible to justice.”

But he backed the union’s call for more protection for police during dangerous pursuits.

“Anything that brings more protection to police officers going about their job would obviously be welcomed,” Supt. Hutchinson said.

“Being an officer driving a police vehicle in a high-speed chase is very stressful. They have to constantly assess the situation and the danger to themselves, the offenders, and the community far more than the average driver.

“The safety of everyone concerned — the offenders, the police officers involved, and members of the community — is our number one priority. Catching the offenders comes second to that.

“The Kimberley is no different to the back streets of Melbourne, anything can happen anytime, so police have got to be on their toes 24 hours a day.”

Mr Flaherty said the lack of protection spoke to the broader issue WA Police was having with staff attrition.

He claimed that some offenders who had allegedly rammed police officers cars or engaged in pursuits had been let off lightly, which affected officer morale.

“We can roll this back to where WA Police at the moment, attrition, trying to retain police officers,” he said.

“If no one’s looking after them, and that includes the agency, the judiciary, the Government, what would you say? It really demoralises the guys. No one gets paid enough to get killed at work.

“The courts have to make sure that there is a sufficient deterrent that people don’t want to do this.”

However, Mr Flaherty said more police resources wasn’t necessarily the answer, calling Operation Regional Shield a “band-aid solution”.

“It’s always going to be a band aid solution, because the reality is. additional resources don’t actually fix the work. Officers come out for two weeks and after, the work is given to the officers that are still here,” he said.

“It’s absolutely critical that there’s a whole-of-government approach to resolving these issues, and you can’t just rely on the police to keep arresting people and keeping them in custody, because nobody wants people in custody.”

However, Supt Hutchinson said the Kimberley region was already well resourced.

“The Kimberley region is very well resourced by the WA Police. We’ve got a number of tools in our toolbox and can bring specialist investigators up from Perth whenever needed,” he said.

Mr Flaherty said he would also like to see more police car pursuit training in the regions.

“My biggest concern is the quality of the training and how many people can be trained. It’s very Perth centric when we’re seeing a lot of these aggravated driving incidents in regional WA. We’re not seeing the people and the staff in regional WA being trained,” he said.