Getting alongside vulnerable communities is a better option than the police changing its pursuit policy to address rising crime, Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick says.
Under its current pursuit policy, which was updated in 2020 following 63 pursuit-related deaths within a decade, police only chase a fleeing driver if the offender needs to be caught immediately and if there's a threat before the pursuit starts.
But Police Commissioner Andrew Coster alluded to AM on Wednesday the change was being considered following a spate of ram raids and youth crime.
However, Auckland Central MP Swarbrick said on Thursday "actual solutions" were needed.
Swarbrick told AM Early pursuits can lead to unintended consequences and harm, particularly if those behind the wheel are young people.
"I think it's far more important that we're having a far more nuanced conversation about the harm occurring and how we use the evidence to reduce that harm, as opposed to… giving licence to all the more criminal penalties and enforcement," she said.
"Something does have to change and really strongly the Greens believe something has to change…We cannot continue to deploy exactly the same knee-jerk responses that we have seen decade after decade."
Swarbrick said the solution was "getting alongside these communities" with early intervention.
"Young people are not inherently bad - they have opportunities to be the best version of themselves and flourish in their communities," she told AM Early host Bernadine Oliver-Kerby.
"The problem is, as Andrew Coster himself has said, these young people, in particular, are not presently engaged - whether it be with our educational system or otherwise."
Coster said on Wednesday the review was his decision and wasn't dictated by the Government.
He had no regrets about changing the policy in 2020, he said.
"It's clearly a massive responsibility to work out where the balance sits and we have to get it right," Coster said. "The reality is, if we change the policy to pursue in certain circumstances then we do increase the risk and inevitably there will be consequences."
