Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says he wants to see a "significant increase" in apprehensions following the policy change in police pursuits.
On Monday, police announced a refresh of the fleeing driver policy which aims to strike a balance between the safety of all road users and ensuring offenders are held to account.
The apprehension rate before the policy change in 2020 was at about 70 percent, but Commissioner Coster told AM the current apprehension rate of 35 percent is "well below what can be considered reasonable", but wouldn't put a figure on what he believes the increase should be.
"Part of the reason here, of course, is every time a driver flees they create a risk to the public whether we are behind them or not, so reducing the number of fleeing driver events by increasing the perception amongst offenders that they'll be apprehended is a key goal."
He said: "There's no easy answer for us here".
"On one side we run the risk of people being injured by drivers who flee and drive badly, on the other side we know we have a responsibility to apprehend offenders, so it's a difficult balance for us to strike."
Coster said the last changes to the policy in 2020 were well underway by the time he began in the role.
"I supported it at the time but I think we can see we haven't got the balance right and we need to come back away."
AM co-host Ryan Bridge asked the Commissioner if he would apologise for getting the policy wrong, but Coster wouldn't.
"We made the decision with the information we had available to us at the time, in response to significant public concern about the risks posed by fleeing drivers who were pursued by police."
Coster said it was the right changes to make at the time, but the "pendulum has swung too far and we need to rebalance".
In police's announcement on Monday, they wouldn't go into detail about the exact changes "because there is a real interest in offenders not knowing what police will do," Coster said
But said Kiwis should expect more pursuits on the street, depending on the crime and rsik to the public.
"If you have serious offending for example an aggravated robbery, a vehicle flees from a crime scene and if there is an apprehension of further ongoing serious offending then police will pursue," he said on Monday.
Watch Coster's full interview above.
