SYDNEY — NSW Police has had to introduce new methods to control their officers during high-speed car chases, according to the November 11 Sydney Morning Herald.
An investigation by the newspaper found that 62 people have died since 1994 as a result of police chases, with scores seriously injured. Some of these chases have been for trivial matters. Nine pedestrians unconnected with the pursuits were among those killed.
The investigation, which was resisted by the police, found that police officers lied, ignored commands to cease pursuit, and used unrecorded radio channels to evade supervision. Supervisors also "turned a blind eye" to police misbehaviour in relation to the pursuits.
Police minister Carl Scully said on November 10 that from now on police chases "are a last resort and used only when the circumstances are serious enough". In the year to June, one in seven high-speed police car chases ended in a crash.
Dale Mills
'Regimes of Terror'
SYDNEY — "Regimes of Terror" is a one-day colloquium the department of critical and cultural studies at Macquarie University will be holding at the Price Theatre on December 13. It will aim to place the "war on terror" in a broader context, asking what conditions and relations of power have contributed to the current political and cultural climate.
The colloquium will examine the institutional, material and symbolic terror of the law as it is experienced by specific and general populations. This is one way that the "war against terror" translates to the "war at home", with Islamic and Arabic communities the most vulnerable.
For more information about "Regimes of terror" or to RSVP, email Elaine at <elaine.kelly@scmp.mq.edu.au> or phone (02) 9850 8606.
Elaine Kelly
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 23, 2005.
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