Juveniles in allegedly stolen four-wheel-drive caught on camera driving after police
“We have a strategy in these circumstances, we call it ‘aggravated vehicular assault’… but the idea is to move people away from crowded areas and then use police skills and tactics to disable the vehicle.
“And we’ve been putting a lot of effort into this since about 2022 to make sure that we do this as safely as possible in a very high-risk environment.”
Blanch said he became “extremely angry” when police arrested the same teenagers “over and over again.”
“But that’s our job; we’ll keep our community safe and arrest people when they commit crimes, we’ll always be there,” he said.
“But I think we all, as a community, need to be concerned when 10-year-olds are in stolen cars, late at night, wandering around townships, and maybe getting arrested for the 30th or 40th time.
“I think it speaks to a much broader issue, particularly around homes and parenting and those kinds of issues, particularly around substance abuse, domestic violence in the home, and why your child is out at night.
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“But my assurance as chief constable is that my officers had a plan, we arrested these criminals and we did it as safely as possible, and as a result of the way we went and the way we did our plan, people were not injured.”
A WA Police spokesman said the cars were later abandoned and the eight children fled on foot but were “quickly located and apprehended by police”.
Four of the children were referred to the juvenile justice team, while the other four were charged with multiple crimes and will appear in court at a later date.
