Saturday 6 December 2008

Too much reckless police speeding?

A coroner has called for police to show more caution before embarking on high speed chases after revealing that they have led to the deaths of more than 200 people in the past six years.

Mr Rose said that nationally, since 2002, an average of three inquests a month have opened where police cars have been involved - one third of which concerned civilian deaths. He questioned whether a fast response is always necessary for emergency calls and said that he had asked for national statistics on the types of crime to which high-speed responses are called, but none are kept.
"I am therefore asking HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in conjunction with Acpo to keep records detailing the type of crime where high-speed responses and pursuits have been involved."I suspect there will be many cases where the level of speed was disproportionate to the crime."