“In eight out of those 10, we made arrests, but in none of those instances did the police vehicle start to pursue in the same direction, ie the wrong way as the offending vehicle.”
A review by the PSNI has uncovered 10 incidents where police were involved in pursuits of vehicles which travelled in the wrong direction on carriageways.
However, a senior officer told the Policing Board that in none of those cases did the police vehicle drive in the wrong direction.
The issue was raised by the board following concern over recent incidents.
In August, two police officers were among seven people killed when a car travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into a force vehicle near Middlesbrough.
The previous week, five teenagers were killed in Co Kildare after the car they were travelling in crashed into another while driving in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway.
Following that incident, concerns were raised by police and politicians in Ireland about cars being driven in the wrong direction on roads for social media likes.
Board chair Brendan Mullan asked the PSNI leadership team if there had been a review of the current pursuit policy following the crashes.
Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones said: “What we have done is developed a strategy to look specifically at the issue of whether or not we have issues with wrong-way driving.
“So the pursuit policy is sound.
“I have undertaken a review to see whether or not we have evidence of pursuits where the offending vehicles are driving the wrong way on carriageways.
“I’ve identified 10 such instances.
“In eight out of those 10, we made arrests, but in none of those instances did the police vehicle start to pursue in the same direction, ie the wrong way as the offending vehicle.”
Ms Jones said the key considerations around pursuits related to safety of the public, the people in the vehicles and officers.
She said: “If they make a decision that that pursue is to be disengaged because of the level of risk that’s involved, and wrong-way driving would be a high level of risk, they will make that decision.
“And it may be that the direct that the officers continue in the pursuit on the right side of the road to then keep up with it and put an intervention in, but without carrying on the wrong side of the road.”
The senior officer said the force was looking at a strategy that would use intelligence and enforcement.
She said: “If we get the social media type trends of the filming, that we won’t sit passively because we weren’t there.
“We’ll identify the offenders. We’ll commence an investigation, and we’ll look to bring you know criminal justice outcomes to those that are doing that.
“We’ll link that into a media strategy to make sure that we’re informing the public of the action we take and we’ll use it as a preventative tool to discourage people from doing it.”
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