CENTRAL Devon MP and Treasury Minister Mel Stride has given his full support to plans by Home Secretary Sajid Javid to seek a change in the law to provide greater legal protections for highly trained police drivers when chasing suspected criminals on the roads.

Existing laws do not recognise the training that police response drivers have been given and the tactics they may have to employ to respond to emergencies and pursue criminals.

Police drivers are held to the same standards as members of the public and have to rely on the discretion of the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the Crown Prosecution Service to avoid misconduct investigations and criminal prosecution.

Key to the proposed change is the principle that officers should not be held accountable for the driving of a suspected criminal attempting to avoid arrest, providing the pursuit is justified and proportionate.

Mr Stride said: “Our police drivers often have to make extremely difficult split-second decisions when pursuing suspects who are driving unpredictably or dangerously.

“They should be able to trust their experience and training and decide whether a pursuit is the best course of action to take or not without fear of prosecution if the suspect they are chasing injures someone or damages property.

“Too often police drivers have found themselves in court defending malicious prosecutions of dangerous or careless driving based on the standards applied to ordinary motorists, not as highly-trained drivers doing their job in very difficult circumstances.

“We need these officers out chasing criminals not tied up in court.”