 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for your time. I thought I might just make a few opening comments and then just open it up to any questions that you have. And might I say if there's any follow-up issues, I'm happy to discuss them with you at some future time or take questions in writing. And at the outset, let me add to that last remark by saying that this area of police pursuits has always and continues to be one of the most challenging for police in terms of their overall role for the responsibility for public safety, but the difficulty associated with the decision-making and judgement that's involved. And I thought yesterday's events were probably a really good example of the degree of difficulty associated with that judgement that's required. And I do think that yesterday the police officers involved demonstrated very good judgement in decision-making and professionalism and the way they handled that matter and also obviously I'd like to thank the media for their support and assistance yesterday in terms of the coverage from the helicopters. If I could just talk more broadly for a moment, over time and particularly over the last 12 years or so, our police pursuit policy in Queensland has become more and more restrictive. Around 12 years ago our policy was very open-ended and the reality was that our policy enabled and allowed police to pursue a motorist for almost any offense and without any conditions. So in effect the police if they went to stop someone who was driving an unregistered vehicle and that person failed to stop and accelerated away and fled from the police we could under our policy that existed then over a decade ago chase that unregistered vehicle for any distance at any speed under any circumstances. And most people I think would say that that wasn't appropriate, that the seriousness of that offense did not warrant a police pursuit. And over time our policy has become more and more restrictive. Following a series of coronial inquests in 2010 and certain recommendations from the coroner which were accepted by the then government our policy changed again and became even more restrictive. And throughout 2011 we retrained all police in that new policy and that new policy came into effect in December last year. I think the current policy is as restrictive as it possibly can be. We still need the ability for police to situational judgements depending on the circumstances. So in my view I wouldn't want to see the current policy become more restrictive. I think there would probably be difficulty at this time in relaxing the policy and making it less restrictive. And the reason I say that is because we've just gone through a situation where we've trained nearly 11,000 police in the new policy, the more restrictive policy that only came into effect in December. So whilst it's not possible, it wouldn't in my view be very difficult and it's not the time to relax the policy. What we have to do is make the current policy work. What we're seeing I believe too is a new phenomena. Generally people who don't stop for the police and who evade the police and well possibly engage in a police pursuit do say because they want to get away. Now that can be for as simple as driving an unregistered vehicle. As simple as perhaps someone having been worried that they might be over the limit. They've had a few drinks and might be over the limit. It could be that they're an unlicensed driver. At the more extreme end, it could be that they're an active criminal and they're driving a stolen car. But generally what they're trying to do is get away. And our policy reflects that. And it's my view and I think it would be the view of most people that it wouldn't matter how valuable a stolen car is. A stolen car is. It could be a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce. It's not worth the life of a person who is quite innocent in the proceedings. So if we chase a stolen car for a long distance and that stolen car goes through a red light at high speed and collides with a family innocently travelling through the green light at that same intersection and someone's killed then no matter what the value of that stolen car it's not worth that loss of life or potentially terrible injuries to innocent people. And that is why we have a policy where we say that in most cases we will abandon the pursuit because the risk to the public is not worth the benefits in continuing to chase them and catch them. What I believe we're seeing though is a new phenomena today and we're seeing a phenomena where we have people who are stealing cars and generally these young men who are high risk takers who are still in cars and engaging in pursuits deliberately and intentionally with the police. Encouraging and actively wanting that pursuit to happen and that's something that's very difficult for us to deal with. I can't comment on the matter yesterday because that's before the courts but this is something new for us and it's something we're obviously going to have to deal with and each occasion that that occurs will have to make judgement calls and the police officers involved in it will have to make a judgement call as to whether it's better to abandon the pursuit or in the overall interest of public safety given the behaviour of the people involved to continue it. So these are really quite complex issues always has been in my view one of the most challenging issues for police officers in terms of the work that they do. But you know this is an example of what the situation yesterday though quite frankly was an example of very good judgement, good professional policing and at the end of the day we got the result that I guess everyone wanted that the alleged offenders would attain the vehicles were recovered but most importantly most importantly no one was hurt. I do have one appeal which we are very grateful to the media for well for promoting for us and we ask for your continued support in this again regrettably as situations change over the time sometimes criminal behaviour changes to adapt to that we've seen a massive reduction in car theft in Queensland in the last decade car theft is better than halved 10 years ago around 20,000 cars were being stolen in Queensland each year last year it was under 10,000 so that's a great result. One of the contributing factors to that apart from some good police work and effort though I mean that cars are now much harder to steal than they ever were many many years ago it was ridiculously easy to steal a vehicle now it's very very difficult to steal a modern vehicle that's produced in 2012 what we're seeing now though is that people who want to steal the cars will break into someone's home and take the keys to achieve that purpose so what we're asking and this will require a dramatic change for me personally and for everyone to consider and do this for us if you would consider hiding the vehicle keys in your own home I know that's a terrible thing to have to ask but it's something that regrettably is a reality and the vehicles that were stolen yesterday were both stolen because people break into the home of the owner and stole the keys so that's probably all I need to say at the moment happy to take any questions now or into the future your view that now is not the time to relax the police pursuit policy that you would ask within your minister, are you comfortable with that? not at all no no the minister is simply the minister is indeed a new minister he's recognised this in my view as one of the most difficult and important areas facing policing and what he says he wants to do and intends to do which I support is to review the policy my position though is that I think it would be very difficult at the current time to change the policy because you can't change the policy every five minutes it's not just a political review of it it's something you would be involved with I'm looking forward to sitting down with the minister and in fact we're preparing a briefing night for the minister at the moment but I didn't think in fairness to the minister that he had said that there's any intent to change the policy what he said he wants to do is review it which is very different from change and as I understood it he wants to be aware of all of the issues involved and there are many issues involved here there are the issues of technology and how that might be used there are the issues of prevention how we might prevent these things happening in the first place and sadly as I've just asked you one of the ways we might be able to prevent this if we're able to hide our own car keys and our own homes and not leave them on the kitchen bench you know which is what many people do and there's no criticism of that that's something that you should be able to do it's quite I feel really uncomfortable asking you to support us in asking the public to hide your car keys and your own home I think it's a very sad thing to have to ask but regrettably we do have to ask the public to do that and we hope that they do follow that suggestion but there's issues if I could just add of prevention so prevention by trying to limit the ability of people to steal cars and as well there's the need for us in the police where we do abandon a pursuit to follow up relentlessly on that try to get the offenders and there's the need of deterrence and I mentioned this morning that I'm and I'm not politically aligned in any way but I'm genuinely grateful to the incoming and new government for having a policy which I understand they intend to enact through legislation where there will be a minimum penalty for evading the police of a $5,000 fine and two years disqualification on the driver's license and I am grateful for that because one of the things I've raised on a number of occasions is that the needs to be a deterrent effect for people who did decide not to stop for the police yesterday there were some problems with communication when the helicopters were in the air, when they were in the hip switch police district it was very easy to talk on the radio to the police communications centre and give police up to minute instructions on where the vehicle was when they went to Brisbane because of the difference in radio technology where the digital encryption that couldn't be done in the end the police helicopter helicopter actually entering triple zero how will you deal with that is that something that should be looked at should there be an analogue channel for emergency use that applies across the state? Look I intend to follow up on that and certainly it's something that I was aware of and was raised by the media we need to look at how we can address that I can't give you the precise answer now the analogue channel through the police communications centre here is one avenue we only have digital secure communications here in Brisbane we don't have it anywhere else in the state I understand as well that the people in the police communications centre were actually watching television and were able to monitor it in that sense as well but it's something we can work with the media on and I'm sure there's a solution to it. As the digital rollout becomes around the state in the coming years will that become more important to you? Look I think it's manageable I'm sure that there's a way through this and fortunately these events of course don't happen that often but certainly we are grateful always for the support of the media and it's not always in situations like we saw yesterday and it's actually it's interesting as a side issue if I might share it with you that one of the aspects that needs to be considered is that if people know that they're being observed through aerial observation it's often the case can I just go back one if someone simply wants to get away from the police once we abandon the pursuit the research tends to show that unless it's their own car and they're going home they'll abandon the vehicle fairly quickly clearly that didn't happen yesterday and where there's an aerial pursuit involved generally the tendency will be to go to an underground carpark and get out of sight of the aerial observation platform in this case helicopters Were there any other communications issues yesterday we were contacted by one officer who was involved in the pursuit that said going between the different regions and different communication centres there were some communication problems between the marked and unmarked cars and that sort of thing are you aware of any others? No I think you've summed that up pretty completely there's the one you mentioned initially in terms of the analog versus digital systems and that's a challenge obviously for us because police vehicles will work on different radio channels and detectives might well work on a different channel to a traffic bench car to a general duties uniform vehicle so that's obviously in terms of communication that can be a challenge especially when something's happening very quickly in such a wide area that becomes a problem here but it's not insurmountable and that's the role of police communications centres to provide for that coordination. I mean I thought overall yesterday was a pretty good effort I really did and I thought it was well managed well conducted by the operational police on the job and I thought their judgement and their decision making was very professional. The police helicopter is not able to be used outside the Gold Coast region? Well I'm sure it could be in a critical emergency but the arrangement was with the Gold Coast City Council and they are funding primarily the operation of the helicopter and in fairness to the Gold Coast City Council the arrangement that we entered into with them was that the helicopter would be used in that area and I think that's fair enough I don't think there was any need for the Gold Coast based helicopter to be used yesterday because it could have done no more than add to what the immediate helicopters are already doing so I don't think there was any loss there in terms of the helicopter not being available. I feel fairly sure that the Gold Coast City Council would have agreed to the emergency use of the helicopter if that had been required. The current arrangements with the Gold Coast City Council expire in about four or five weeks time and what we're endeavouring to do obviously is to continue those and that is in fact a government commitment of course to continue those arrangements and my understanding of the government commitment with helicopters is that in approximately two years time the government will provide two helicopters one for the Gold Coast area and continue that service and the other for the rest of South East Queensland. The families of some of the alleged offenders yesterday have made a series of wide ranging allegations outside court and one of them being that some of these young teenagers were assaulted in the watch houses area and creeds to this at all. I have no knowledge of that whatsoever and I was only told about that a few minutes ago before I came into this press conference look I'll refer that to the CMC and if anyone has a complaint to make against the police they can make that here at headquarters they can make that at a local police station or they can go directly to the CMC themselves but I have no knowledge of that of course of that having occurred. I've seen comments online from some of the friends and family of these alleged offenders saying that they can get away from police because they know that they won't be chased. How do you answer that criticism? Particularly knowing it went on for a very long time yesterday and some people say far too long and police should have stepped in. What I think it does is reflect the degree of difficulty associated with this issue and I believe as I said at the outset that I think this is one of the most challenging and difficult areas of policing. Policing is not an easy job, it's a difficult job at any time whether you're dealing with domestic violence, alcohol related violence, the unfortunate situation of someone having their home broken into their child using drugs, I mean any of the circumstances and issues they deal with are difficult but this is right up there with the very the most difficult of all and every situation has got to be judged on its own I think the judgement calls that the officers made yesterday in terms of continuing that matter on despite the length of time it went for but at times quite often backing off I think their judgement calls were good and I think the situation yesterday was one that justified and warranted the continuation of the effort to ultimately get to the result that was achieved. Generally speaking though if a vehicle is stolen we may well abandon the pursuit because it may be that it's in the overall safety interest of everyone that it's better to stop chasing the person in the stolen vehicle and let it go in the hope that they very soon have to stop their dangerous driving and abandon the vehicle. The decisions children are interpreting from that is police aren't going to chase me so I can get away with it. Is that concerning? It does but that was always going to be the risk with a more restrictive policy. When I gave evidence that the colonial inquiries in 2010 and I'm not being critical of anyone here this is not a perfect world and there are many many aspects to this and one of the aspects to it is that we have in Queensland as they do anywhere a small percentage of totally irresponsible people who will be aware of our policy and may use that to what they see as their advantage but we have to weigh it all up and at the end of the day I just would like to repeat what I said earlier that there's no stolen car that is worth the life of an innocent Queenslander. There is no stolen car that's worth the life of an innocent Queenslander and if that means that we have to abandon the pursuit of a stolen car and the interest of overall safety then that's what we need to do and if you're driving at night through an intersection and you see, sorry, if you're approaching an intersection at night time in say an 80 kilometre an hour zone and you see a green light you're entitled to think that you can drive through that intersection and safety and what you don't want is someone coming through the red at high speed and hitting you and the more we can minimise that sort of risk the better but regrettably as I mentioned earlier most people in a police pursuit who don't stop for the police, you know all they want to do is get away but there's a small percentage of totally irresponsible people who are different to that and in the worst cases of it they actively try to engage the police in a pursuit and that's where my people have to make really critical judgement calls to add to that most of the people who do that are male they're young, they're likely quite possibly to be alcohol or drug affected and the worst and most dangerous of cases they're at risk of self harm, in other words they're potentially suicidal they have no regard for themselves or anyone else and they're behind the wheel of a car and so these are very difficult issues Commissioner the helicopter on the Gold Coast, does it have both digital and analog radios in it but can you talk to both sets of communications areas that you know of? Look I don't, certainly it's got analog, I don't know if it has digital but you don't have digital on the Gold Coast, can I follow up on that and come back to you with the precise answer on that? Commissioner can you just clarify, is it your personal belief that the current pursuit policy is too restrictive even though you don't necessarily think changes should be made do you believe that it is too restrictive? My points are that obviously this is not something that's stationary this will continue to evolve but I just wanted to make the point that this will continue to evolve I'm really hopeful that over time and it won't happen today or tomorrow that with technology we can do a lot in this area I'm hopeful that with stolen vehicles we will have things like remote engine disablers and GPS tracking so that if someone does break into your home and steal the car keys and take your car that we will be able to know where that vehicle is through GPS and remotely turn the engine off through the computerised systems and technology that's a reality in terms of its potentiality, it's not there yet it's not like we're talking about space travel 50 years before it happened that this is genuinely possible so I'm hopeful through technology in time we'll be able to do a lot in this space I believe that the current police policy is as restrictive as it possibly can be, I would not want to see it any more restrictive than it is, you have to have in my view the ability for officers to have situational judgement and discretion in terms of managing these situations, I also think that because we retrained all officers last year and this new policy only came in in December, it's a bit early to talk about either making the policy even more restrictive or relaxing it, I think we need to go with the current policy into the foreseeable future. Commissioner, has the police minister indicated to you whether he wants the policy to be less restrictive? As I understand it, all the police minister has said is that he wants to review the current policy and the peripheral issues that go with the current policy and I think that's fine, we're very supportive of that and as I said we're preparing a ministerial brief for the police minister in relation to the history of the policy, how it is that the policy arrived at the place where it is now and as well as some of those other issues. He has also said that it's his belief that it's too easy to flee from police in Queensland and that the policy changes that were made under the past government probably went too far while not saying they need to be scaled back as such but do you agree with those comments? It was my view that we probably, I saw this as an opportunity and I saw it that over time the police policy on pursuits would become more restrictive and I saw that we would end up where we are now at some stage. It's probably true to say that we got there a little bit sooner than I personally would have liked but nonetheless that's where we are now and I'm not being critical of anyone in making that observation this is one of those areas where probably if you talk to 20 people you might get 20 different views but I think that there's no problem at all and I welcome the minister reviewing the matter and if there were to be changes to the policy well obviously as a government department obviously the government of the day sets policy directions but I've expressed my view which I'm happy to repeat if you want me to in regard we are where we are now and we've only just got there and it's a big thing to retrain an entire police department and a new policy. I've mentioned remote engine disablers, those BMWs they're quite new cars, do they not already have those? Was it not possible to do that yesterday? Well I don't know the answer to that question but one would have thought that had it been possible that that action would have been put into place but certainly you're right and I guess I was trying to make, perhaps not very well, that I'm not talking about something that's out in the stratosphere here, the concepts of technology with GPS and remote engine disablers are possible, quite possible and again that can't happen tomorrow but into the future I'm hopeful that technology will be one of the answers to this terribly difficult problem that we do. So you were saying that police, even though this technology does exist in some cars police can't access it yet, they can't use it yet, is that what you're saying? What I'm saying really is that in the situation where, unfortunately that happens rarely but when it does happen it's terrible, where someone steals a car and where the people who do that are totally irresponsible and they engage in a police pursuit and want to continue in that high risk activity and they do that intentionally and deliberately that what will assist us into the future will be technology such as remote engine disablers so that that stolen car can simply have the motor switched off. I think some cars do have that and I think that that technology does exist in some vehicles and especially the higher end price vehicles. Well no we wouldn't do it without the owner's consent. What I'm talking about here is stolen cars. I'm talking about stolen cars, I'm not talking about the person who owns the vehicle and has run away from the police because they've had too much to drink or they're unlicensed, you know, I'm talking about stolen cars and that's where I think technology will in the future, that's into the future. We have to deal with the reality of situations like yesterday and the here and now and what we have to do with those situations is my people have to make judgement calls based on the circumstances at the time and I thought yesterday that the risk of being repetitive here was an example where I think they did that pretty well. What is actually restrictive about these police pursuit laws? What makes them the most restrictive they've ever been? I'm happy to give you the example and history of that but as I mentioned there was a time about 12 years or so ago where our policy was very open ended and basically the police could chase for any offence under any circumstances. If you like afterwards I'll get you a copy of the current policy but essentially it has to be a crime, it can't be a minor offence it has to be that the benefit of the pursuit outweighs the risks associated with the pursuit and it also has to be that there is a demonstrable, imminent, immediate need to apprehend the people involved. In other words it's not better just to let them go and try and catch them later. But can I get you a copy of the policy? Would anyone else, would others like that as well? The incident yesterday proved that some of these suspects were really laughing at the base of the justice system. Do you think that's because the sentences that have been previously handed out haven't been harsh enough? It's a really good question I thank you for asking it. I have said for some time that if you are going to not stop for the police and basically just accelerate a way that there has to be a discouragement for that behaviour and for most people, hopefully the new legislation with what I understand is going to be the minimum penalty will help in terms of being a discouragement. This is I guess I'm talking about here if there is such a thing, thank goodness that this happens really. Most people do stop for the police, it would be a terrible situation if they didn't but for most of those people the discouragement needs to be there so that they pause and think for a second and think right, if I do this what they need to know is that the penalty is going to be worse than if they stopped. So if they've been drinking and they stopped they might lose their licence for three months and get a $500 fine. Under the regime that's proposed the minimum penalty will be a $5,000 fine and two years disqualification. I'm very supportive of that because up to date the average penalty for evading the police has been a $250 fine. Now if you don't wear a seat belt it's a $300 fine so my concern has been is that the deterrent effect has not been there in terms of evading the police. But the issue you raised is separate to that yet again and that's that new phenomena that I mentioned earlier where you have people who steal vehicles and actively engage with the police in terms of this high risk taking behaviour and as I mentioned generally these people are young, they're male, they may be alcohol or drug affected at the time and their behaviour can be so high risk that they can apparently on the face of it have no concern for their own safety or the safety of anyone else and this is a very disconcerning level of behaviour so your point as I understood it was what do we do with people like that and that's a very difficult question because it would seem as though some just don't care, just don't care but what we have to do I think is at both the front and rear end we have to try and prevent this sort of behaviour but again I think there has to be some consequences for it that makes them think twice especially in terms of repeat behaviour. Anything else that will really appreciate your time, thanks again for your help yesterday we'll get the copy of the policy if you could just wipe behind