Poice Pursuits and Training

[Dibble]

Police Magazine said:

Police pursuits can involve high-speed chases which sometimes end in tragedy when an innocent person gets killed. This is why the Federation believe that training police pursuit drivers should be a priority and ACPO themselves have admitted that forces not enforcing national standards are a matter of ‘grave concern’. Police magazine looks exclusively at research carried out by the Federation which reveals a disturbing lack of commitment from some forces to train their police drivers properly. Syreeta Lund reports. When a police officer follows a suspect in a high speed pursuit the results can sometimes end in tragedy. Newspapers have recently reported on a number of cases where innocent lives have been taken as a result of police pursuits. The Federation survey has looked at a whole raft of training issues, including the training of the drivers used in pursuits, whether the police vehicles used were double-crewed, as this allows the driver to concentrate on the pursuit rather than any other distractions and the training of control room staff, who often make crucial decisions over whether a pursuit should continue or be stopped. Out of the 43 forces across England and Wales, 33 answered the survey, a high response rate of 77 per cent. The Police Complaints Authority (PCA), the precursor to the IPCC, voiced their concerns over the issue of police pursuits back in 2002 following an increase in the number of voluntary referrals in relation to pursuit-related deaths from forces. The figure had risen from nine in 1997 to 1998 up to 44 in 2001 to 2002. There were 31 pursuit deaths recorded by the PCA for 2002 to 2003, and the latest figures are likely to come out post-election, after this edition goes to press. Now Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has called for a review of driving standards. Mr Hardwick has expressed his fears, saying that forces need to look at the lessons that can be learned when a death is associated with a police pursuit in order to save lives in the future. Yet, despite increasing concern over the number of deaths, more than three quarters of forces with a Force Safety Committee who responded to the Federation’s survey said that the committee does not investigate police vehicle accidents. These committees could investigate the lessons learned from such incidents and try to prevent potential tragedies from happening in the future. More than a third, 35 per cent, of forces said they had no training process to ‘learn’ from police vehicle accidents. Alan Jones, the Federation’s lead on road policing issues who spent 18 years in roads policing as a constable, sergeant and inspector, says: ‘The facts are quite clear, at the moment driver training is all over the place. Some forces are excellent but some are extremely poor and do not adhere to the national standards, that’s not good for safety.’ Mr Hardwick also stated that a review of guidelines covering high-speed pursuits needs to take place, possibly looking at training. The Federation survey also found a huge variation in the length of training given to police drivers. According to the ACPO Police Driver Training Manual, advanced drivers should usually have a minimum of four weeks training plus an extra week for a module on tactical pursuits, a standard driver would undergo an average of three weeks training plus three days for an additional pursuit module. Basic grade drivers are not trained at all in pursuit driving. Federation research found huge variation, a standard course in driver training can be as little as 13 days or up to five weeks, advanced drivers are likely to undergo anything from 19 days training to five weeks training. The most frequently mentioned length of course for basic driver training is just one day. The survey found that although the majority of forces used advanced drivers, nearly a quarter also used standard trained drivers. Three per cent of the forces had actually used officers with only basic training to carry out pursuits; something the national ACPO Police Driver Training Manual recommends does not take place. Richard Brunstrom, ACPO lead on Roads Policing and chief constable of North Wales Police, says: ‘Basic grade drivers are not trained in response driving at all, and should not be driving under such conditions.’ John Giblin, secretary of the Federation’s promotion and training sub-committee, involved in compiling the research, warns of the consequences of sending out police drivers on pursuits when they have not been given the proper training to do so safely. ‘A vehicle can be a weapon. Putting a car in the hands of someone who has not been given the skills and ability they need – it becomes a weapon and who is held to account over this? It ends up being the officer involved in fatal collisions not the managers responsible for failing to equip them with the right tools. ‘We are asking that the movers and shakers, the chief officers, deliver a national standard of training. They are responsible for those officers and, ultimately, should take some of the responsibility when things go wrong and lives are taken.’ Around 40 per cent of those questioned said that their force use single crews always or mostly during police pursuits, despite a recommendation by ACPO that double crews should be used where available. Guidelines for the Management of Police Pursuits 2004, designed to reduce police pursuit related fatalities, states: “where double-crewed vehicles are available they should be used...since…this allows the police driver to concentrate on their driving and tactic development and for radio operators to deliver the information required to other participants and control rooms by verbal commentary”. Other forms of training, which could help to cut down the risk of deaths associated with police pursuits, relate to the different methods now available to stop vehicles in their tracks, without dangerous high-speed pursuits. Stingers are one such method and are a device which can be thrown across the path of an oncoming car which punctures the tyres and stops the vehicle. Yet, nearly six in ten forces only train drivers in these kinds of methods. Controllers, who can often make the crucial decision of whether to continue a pursuit, are not likely to be given the training. Only 21 per cent of those surveyed said that control room operators were trained in using ‘stoppers’. ‘The operators are making crucial decisions about pursuits. If they have not had the right training there is going to be a lack of consistency when it comes to making decisions, and that can mean more potential for fatalities’ says Mr Giblin. This is despite the fact the Federation survey found that 84 per cent of control room operators ‘always’ or ‘often’ make a decision as to whether or not to continue a pursuit. More than half of those forces questioned in the survey do not provide access to refresher training for operators. The trend also extends to pursuit drivers, with nearly a third, 29 per cent, of forces providing neither assessments nor refreshers. Mr Giblin says the majority of police drivers will have only undergone standard training and that any training on top of this is often regarded as an abstraction by chief officers in some forces, something Mr Giblin argues is not acceptable. ‘Those who have not been in the job long will have just undergone training but there are officers who will not have had any refresher training for 20 to 30 years. This is a ridiculous situation when concern over safety for both officers and the public should be paramount.’ Mr Brunstrom says that the ACPO National Police Driver Training Conference, who oversee all police driver training matters on behalf of all forces, produce and update the national driver training manual. They recommend refresher training every three to five years based on assessments and competency. However, the research found that 34 per cent of forces make no provision for a formal assessment of driving skills every three to five years. He agrees that safety should be a top priority for all chief officers when it comes to trying to reduce deaths on Britain’s roads. He told Police: ‘It is only in recent months that police forces have begun to implement the guidelines [ACPO Pursuit Guidelines] and this is still not the case for some areas of the country. This is a matter of grave concern and one in which ACPO, the Home Office and the IPCC are working together to address the problems. The policy is in place, the driver training modules are in place, and now we need all forces to put it into practice.’ The Federation survey on police driver training found: ● 79 per cent of forces with a Force Safety Committee do not make use of it to investigate police vehicle accidents ● Only a quarter of forces have black boxes, similar to those used in aeroplanes to record information which could help learn lessons from an accident, fitted to all or most pursuit vehicles. In 37 per cent of forces none have been fitted with a black box ● 34 per cent of forces make no provision for periodic formal assessment of driving skills every three to five years ● In nearly 47 per cent of forces it is considered normal practice for control room operators to always make decisions about continuing or stopping a pursuit ● Despite 84 per cent of control room operators ‘always or ‘often’ deciding on pursuits, over half of forces, 53 per cent, do not provide controllers with access to refresher training ● 35 per cent of forces have no training processes in place for learning from police vehicle accidents. In force where there was training in place, only just over half apply that learning to improving the training process in general ● Only 41 per cent of forces ‘routinely’ debrief after pursuit incidents.

Full article here

[IOLAIRE]

Utterly shocking!!

[towman]

Shocking, but......

it`s still a lot more training than the average motorist receives throughout the whole of their driving career. But then thats a seperate issue....

[Mad Moggie]

Bet this level of basic training extends throughout each department in real terms.

How on earth can they deal with emergencies with such low key training.

Mind you - it's a bit like Johnny for the dole queuebeing told he is a qualified tradesman (elctrician plumber roofer :decorator: afer a 6 week Bliardeal course...



>> Edited by Mad Moggie on Friday 13th May 01:38

[streaky]

mungo said:

[ ... ] Of course it's all down to force policy which as a police officer you have to adhere to... The reality is that all police vehicles are exempt from road regulations when used for police business

Do you not mean that the drivers are exempt?

One of the problems is - as highlighted on other posts in SP&L - that some BiB behave as though they are exempt from all law.

Streaky