http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Chases-to-stay-and-people-will-die-minister/2004/11/08/1099781324738.html?oneclick=true"
Gerard Ryle and Debra Jopson
"High-speed police chases would continue, the NSW Police Minister, John Watkins, said yesterday, even though deaths on the road were a tragic and 'inevitable part of modern policing'.
'They are a dangerous but necessary part of police practice and they are here to stay. Otherwise it would be to abandon the streets to criminals who are fleeing police,' he said.
Mr Watkins was responding to a Herald investigation which found that one in six people killed in the course of police pursuits since 1994 was an innocent passer-by. NSW has the highest death rate from police pursuits of all states, with 54 people killed since 1994.
The Herald asked Mr Watkins if anything could be done to improve a situation where innocent bystanders were being killed. 'Most of them are killed by the criminals that are evading the police,' he said.
The Herald found that this was not the case. Only 292 of the 2459 pursuits last year were for suspected criminal offences."
