Chapter 3. Legislation, policies and procedures governing
3.4 Policies, procedures and guidelines relevant to NSWPF Taser users
3.4.1 NSW Police Force Handbook
The NSW Police Force Handbook29 provides guidance to officers about a range of issues relevant to their powers,
functions and responsibilities. Under the heading ‘Electronic Control Devices’, there is information about the following issues:
• criteria for the use of Tasers
• requirements for training and authority to carry Tasers
• responsibilities of Commanders regarding compliance with the Taser SOPs, regular inspections of Taser weapons, and procedures for storing and tracking Tasers
• requirements to provide first aid and request assistance from ambulance personnel.
3.4.2 NSWPF Safety Policy Statement
The Safety Policy Statement30 outlines the NSWPF’s commitment to safety and the principles underlying their
safety policy. It applies to operational police and management, but also covers the NSWPF’s safety responsibilities and accountabilities to members of the public. The statement is also relevant to managing use of force incidents, including those involving Taser use.
According to the Safety Policy Statement, the NSWPF’s commitment is to:
• Appropriately define and allocate safety responsibilities;
• Allocate appropriate resources to measure and continually improve safety;
• Comply with legal and organisational requirements for safety, health and injury management; • Minimise the risk of injury and disease for staff and others at our workplaces;
• Actively identify hazards, assess and reduce risk;
• Provide workplaces, work practices, substances, plant, equipment and other assets that are, as far as practicable, safe and without risk to health;
• Provide appropriate safety information, instruction, training and supervision; …31
The Safety Policy Statement also lists a number of safety principles, including:
• the consideration of safety in planning and conducting work and operations
• supervisors ensuring that safety requirements are implemented and maintained
• that safety lessons should be learnt from incidents
• that staff should contribute, report issues, follow procedures and not accept unsafe behaviour
• all incidents, hazards, risks and suggestions are to be raised with management and Occupation, Health and Safety Committees.32
3.4.3 National guidelines for deploying police in high risk situations
In November 1992, the Australasian Police Ministers’ Council (now the Standing Council on Police and Emergency Management) endorsed the National Guidelines for the Deployment of Police in High Risk Situations, prepared by the National Police Research Unit.33 The guidelines were amended in 2005.34 These guidelines specify a core set of
nationally agreed guidelines for the management of high risk situations, including the deployment of police in high risk situations, the deployment of police negotiators and the use of lethal force by police.
The NSWPF policies and procedures for high risk incidents have been developed to be consistent with these guidelines.35 The relevance of these guidelines is that they provide criteria for deploying specialist police – they set
out the types of situations where general duties police officers should generally not attempt to resolve but contain the situation.
The guidelines recognise that there is a wide range of circumstances and types of situations that may be considered ‘high risk’. In deciding whether a situation should be defined as high risk, the real or impending violence or threat must be such that the degree of force that could be used by police in dealing with the situation is fully justified. A situation may be defined as high risk if it meets one or more of the following criteria:
(a) seriousness of the offence committed by the suspect/offender; (b) expressed intention by suspect/s to use lethal force;
(c) reasonable grounds to believe that the suspect: • may use lethal force;
• has or may cause injury/death;
• has issued threats to kill or injure any persons; (d) the suspect:
• has a prior history of violence; • is exhibiting violence now;
(e) involvement of innocent participants (e.g., hostages, VIPs, or bystanders).36
The guidelines state that negotiation is the preferred option for resolving high risk incidents, and that non-violent means should be used as far as is reasonably possible before resorting to the use of force. Police managers are required to consider the option of deploying trained police negotiators to high risk situations, and to ensure that such deployment is made at the earliest opportunity to maximise the possibility of resolving the incident without violence. Specially trained police tactical units should be deployed:
(a) in all High Risk Situations, or when it is reasonably established that the resolution of an incident requires [their] expertise, or when there is a potential that alternative action would reasonably be expected to result in the death or injury to police, suspects or other members of the public; and
(b) when authorised by an officer, at a level approved by the Commissioner of Police for this purpose.37
When police become aware of a high risk situation, they should request the deployment of these tactical units. Clear levels of command and areas of responsibility should be established at the scene. Tactical units should not undertake any tactical action to resolve the situation until authorised by a commissioned officer at the rank of Assistant Commissioner or above (or delegate). Police are required to ‘exercise restraint in the use of force and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence, level of risk involved and the legitimate objectives to be achieved’.38
Where practical, medical assistance must be made available at the site of the incident, and where necessary and safe to do so, such assistance should be provided at the earliest opportunity in order to save lives or reduce the impact of injuries. Police should also try to minimise any impact of their actions on innocent people.
Firearms should not be used ‘against another person except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury; to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life; and only when less extreme means are insufficient to safely and effectively achieve these objectives’.39
Where police officers find it necessary to use lethal force, they must:
(a) exercise restraint and only use sufficient force to achieve their objectives; (b) minimise injury to human life;
(c) minimise material damage;
(d) ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible opportunity; and
(e) ensure that a relative or close friend of the injured or affected person is notified at the earliest possible opportunity.40
The guidelines state that police management must ensure that the activities of police tactical units are adequately recorded in accordance with established procedures for:
• all instances involving the police use of lethal force causing death or injury;
• any police use of force in the performance of their duty, and outside training or practice; • any use of force used against police or other persons as appropriate; and
• any incidence of death during a police operation that is not due to the police use of force.41
Police managers should also ensure that police and police negotiators involved in high risk situations receive a formal debriefing. The debriefing should identify any procedural or tactical strengths, and police managers should ensure that prompt and appropriate action is taken to address any inadequacies in dealing with the situation. The debriefing and follow-up actions should be documented.
3.4.4 NSWPF policy for high risk situations
The NSWPF’s Tactical Operations Unit (TOU) is primarily responsible for dealing with high risk situations. It provides operational support to all police, with the aim of resolving high risk situations without loss of life, injury to people or damage to property. Given the size of NSW, the TOU is supported by its regional counterpart – the State Protection Support Unit (SPSU). When responding to high risk situations, the TOU are generally deployed with police negotiators.
The NSWPF have adopted the definition of high risk situation from the National Guidelines for Deployment of Police to High Risk Situations, Deployment of Police Negotiators and the Use of Lethal Force – 2005. The NSW Police Force Handbook also states that the TOU may be deployed to the following high risk situations:
• siege or hostage situations
• the arrest of armed and dangerous offenders
• high risk entries and searches of premises
• escorts of a high risk nature
• security of internationally protected persons, heads of state and holders of high public office at risk
• incidents involving persons threatening self-harm
• high risk major operations.
In a high risk situation, general duties police must carefully consider their personal safety as well as the safety of other police and the public. Where possible, they should:
• Consider the guiding principles of containment and negotiation • Isolate the incident site by establishing a perimeter
• Request the assistance of the TOU and Police Negotiators.42
However, in exigent circumstances, the general duties officer may have to act before the arrival of the TOU. When a direct threat requires immediate action, general duties police must consider using commensurate force to protect human life.
General duties officers should request urgent assistance from the TOU and police negotiators through the Duty Operations Inspector, Sydney Communications Centre. In emergency high risk situations, any officer can request assistance from the TOU and police negotiators – but they should seek advice first from a senior officer, if possible.
3.4.5 Guidelines for managing and investigating critical incidents
A critical incident is one where a person has died or been seriously injured in connection with police actions or a police operation. In NSW, all critical incidents are investigated by police in accordance with the Critical Incident Guidelines.43 These guidelines establish the roles and duties along the chain of command when dealing with a
critical incident. In particular, the Senior Critical Incident Investigator is responsible for ensuring that all critical incidents are investigated in a rigorous and thorough manner, and that appropriate prosecution action is taken if any offence is identified. When investigating an incident, the Critical Incident Investigation Team are to consider ‘the lawfulness of police action, the extent of police compliance with relevant guidelines, legislation and internal policy and procedures’.44
Endnotes
1. Australasian Centre for Policing Research, National Minimum Guidelines for Incident Management, Conflict Resolution and Use of Force, 1998. 2. Joyner, C. and Basile, C., ‘The Dynamic Resistance Response Model’, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, September 2007, p. 17.
3. NSW Police Force, NSW Police Force Handbook, 30 May 2012, p. 532. 4. Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 (NSW) Schedule 1 cl 2(18A)–(18B). 5. ibid, s. 7(1).
6. ibid, s. 6(2).
7. Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW), s.7(1).
8. Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW), s.7(2)(f) provides that the prohibition against the use of listening devices does not apply to ‘the use of a listening device, being a device integrated into a Taser issued to a member of the NSW Police Force, to record the operation of the Taser and the circumstances surrounding its operation’.
9. R v Ali Alkan [2010] NSWLC 1. 10. ibid, [67]. 11. ibid, [70]–[74]. 12. ibid, [78]. 13. ibid, [79]–[80]. 14. ibid, [86].
15. R v Bugmy (Unreported, Local Court of NSW, Magistrate Dunlevy, 17 February 2012). 16. ibid, p. 7.
17. ibid, p. 8.
18. NSW Police Force, Standard Operating Procedures for use of Electronic Control (TASER) Devices by the NSW Police Force, version 1.18, (approved for release in July 2012).
19. ibid, p. 3. 20. ibid, p. 3.
21. ibid, section 3.12, p. 15, (emphasis in original). 22. ibid, section 4, p. 16.
23. ibid, section 5, p. 16, (emphasis in original). 24. ibid, section 6.6, p. 18.
25. ibid, section 6.4, p. 17. 26. ibid.
27. ibid, section 6.9, p. 18, (emphasis in original). 28. ibid, section 1.26, p. 11.
29. NSW Police Force, NSW Police Force Handbook, 30 May 2012. 30. NSW Police Force, Safety Policy Statement, July 2009. 31. ibid, p. 1.
32. ibid.
33. National Police Research Unit, National Guidelines for the Deployment of Police in High Risk Situations, November 1992; in Australasian Centre for Policing Research, National Guidelines Compendium: Police Use of Lethal Force, Deployment of Police in High Risk Situations, Deployment of Police Negotiators, Report series number 123, 1995, pp. 17–22.
34. Australasian Centre for Policing Research, National Guidelines for Deployment of Police to High Risk Situations, Deployment of Police Negotiators and the Use of Lethal Force – 2005.
35. NSW Police Force, Commissioner’s Circular, CN No. 94/45, ‘National Guidelines for the Deployment of Police High Risk Situation’, 2 May 1994. 36. Australasian Centre for Policing Research, National Guidelines for Deployment of Police to High Risk Situations, Deployment of Police
Negotiators and the Use of Lethal Force – 2005, p. 2. 37. ibid, Guideline 22, pp. 7–8.
38. ibid, Guideline 19, p. 7. 39. ibid, Guideline 39, p. 9. 40. ibid, Guideline 41, p. 10. 41. ibid, Guideline 10, p. 6.
42. NSW Police Force, NSW Police Force Handbook, 30 May 2012, p. 483. 43. NSW Police Force, Critical Incident Guidelines, version 5, August 2012. 44. ibid, pp. 10, 11, 28.