Ramming police must be made a serious offence with serious consequences
A GOOD gauge of a community’s standard of respect is how it treats its police, writes Wayne Gatt.
Opinion
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A GOOD gauge of a community’s standard of respect is how it treats its police.
Rightly, the community expects our members to respond and act when needed, even in situations where their safety is placed at risk. Those situations should be, and once were, rare and shocking.
When, as a community we reach a point where that is no longer the case, respect has been lost.
More than 230 police cars were rammed in 2015 and 2016. That’s 230 times police have been called to respond to a crime, and have left the scene as the victims. By no measure is that acceptable, or comparable to our counterparts interstate.
Every three days, on average, our police are absorbing the impact of this dangerous trend both physically and psychologically.
Police cars can be fixed, but the members inside them when they’re rammed can’t be repaired by a panelbeater.
The physical effects are harder to treat and the psychological impact is harder to gauge in the short term.
On one occasion in Melton last month, a police vehicle was rammed 12 times. That’s a dozen conscious decisions by an offender to endanger two police officers, simply because they presented a barrier to committing crime. As they should, as they’re expected to by the community.
The problem is that when cornered and facing apprehension, criminals feel they have a choice on what to do next. It shouldn’t be a “choose your own adventure”.
When it reaches that crossroads, the story must end.
So 230 times in those last two years, an offender has asked him or herself the question — “Is this worth it?” — and decided that the punitive risk they’re about to take in ramming a police car is worth the potential reward of their temporary freedom.
There is only one way of altering that mindset and it’s through legislative reform.
It’s up to government to make the act of ramming police a serious offence with serious consequences.
It’s the only way to tap into an offender’s primary motive, self-preservation, and have that same question — “Is this worth it?” — draw a different answer.
Wayne Gatt is secretary of the Police Association Victoria
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