Vision of a NSW police officer pointing his gun at a man after a pursuit is reminiscent of the United States and underscores the importance of recording all police interactions, the NSW Council of Civil Liberties says.
In an incident which unfolded in January last year, a 32-year-old man was stopped by a highway patrol officer after he allegedly drove down a side street to evade police doing breath tests in Queanbeyan.
When the man pulled over, on a lane just inside the ACT border, police dash camera vision shows the officer running to the driver's side window with his gun drawn.
The officer taps the pistol twice on the window, pulls the door open, and points the gun as the man's face as he climbs out and raises his hands in the air.
The man complies with a direction to lie face down on the road, and the officer puts the weapon back in its holster. As the man continues to lie on the ground, the officer knees him in the back, handcuffs him and hits him again on the back.
He is then breathalysed, with the test allegedly returning a positive result, and charged with level three drink driving.
Footage of the incident was tendered to ACT Magistrates Court last week, as the man's lawyers successfully applied to have the drink driving charge against him thrown out.
Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter said she was appalled the police officer had drawn his gun in the circumstances and it was clearly unnecessary to have levelled it at the man's face.
She found the drink-driving offence was not proved as he was breathalysed at the scene with a device not approved device under ACT law, and Canberra police had not carried out their own breath test at the scene.
Because the charge was thrown out, she was not required to make any formal finding as to whether the man's arrest had been improper. He was awarded costs.
Mr Blanks said the incident was reminiscent of high-profile police incidents in the United States, "but for the fact that it didn't end with the driver being shot dead".
"Certainly the timing of this coming to light, when we've seen what's happened in the US, really drives the point home to the public that we need to be safe from police misconduct," Mr Blanks said.
"We need to see the police management and hierarchy keeping us safe and condemning use of inappropriate force."
Mr Blanks said it was important for police to wear cameras to show exactly what happened in interactions with them.
"Incidents like this only come to light because they're recorded on video," Mr Blanks said.
"If there wasn't the video, the police officer simply would have lied about his actions and the court would have been unable to make the clear decision that it made.
"It's important that those cameras are used so all police activity is properly recorded, not just the activity they choose."
Adrian McKenna, a senior associate with Ben Aulich and Associates, was part of the legal team which represented the driver in court. He told News Corp he hadn't seen any such footage for something so routine as a drink driving charge.
"This is not the United States of America and Australian[s] expect a very high standard from our police force," Mr McKenna said.
"It is a good opportunity for the police officer involved to be corrected and re-trained if necessary and it is also a good opportunity for other officers to take this as a warning to be aware of their conduct."
NSW Police said in a statement that they would review "the circumstances of the prosecution and the court's decision".
Fairfax Media
