WA’s top cop has defended a decision by two police officers to pursue a “career criminal” through the streets of Leeming on Monday, after an unmarked police car crashed into a civilian vehicle, leaving an 80-year-old man fighting for his life.
On Thursday morning police commissioner Col Blanch said the blame for the incident should sit squarely with the person the officers were trying to apprehend, alleging the culprit was on bail at the time of the pursuit.
“Our police officers have to make split-second decisions, and they do a constant risk assessment,” he said on ABC Radio.
“And we’re not always going to get it right.”
Blanch said he was “deeply saddened” that an 80-year-old man was seriously injured in the process of a pursuit, but said his blame sits with the person who caused the pursuit.
“He’s got a significant criminal history,” he said.
“He was on bail. He doesn’t have a driver’s license [so he] should not be in a car.
“If a community wants to be angry, I tell you where my anger lies about that 80-year-old man lying in hospital, it’s with that person driving that car.”
Blanch said the officers involved were highly trained, before later adding that one of them was responsible for training others in pursuit driving and had been trained in both Scotland and the US “in pursuit tactics”.
“[He] is probably one of our best drivers that we have, which shows how dangerous it can be on the road because that’s how this ended,” he said.
“I stand behind my police officers.
“They’re going to make split second decisions and this is a terrible, terrible outcome. But the only reason they were doing what they were doing is because that person made the decision to steal a car, allegedly … who had no business driving like that, having total disregard for human life on our roads.”
The incident occurred around 11am on South Street when police were allegedly trying to stop a stolen vehicle that was travelling at approximately 150km/h through an intersection.
When the civilian car drove forward from a turning lane, the police car hit it, leaving the 80-year-old driver with significant injuries.
The accident left a street sign embedded in one of the vehicles, while the force of the collision resulted in the engine of the other vehicle being ejected and ending up on the other side of the road.
The police officers, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s, were both taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital but suffered no major injuries.
The driver of the Hyundai Accent, a man aged in his 80s, was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital suffering serious injuries. He remains in a critical condition.
Blanch said a full internal review of what happened was underway and that he had reached out to the family of the victim.
“I can’t express this enough - my heart goes out to that family because they want answers,” he said.
“And my job is to get them the answers that they need as to why this happened and how this happened.”