The head of the Police Association says changes to the police pursuits policy will encourage criminals to flee when they see flashing lights in their rear view mirror.
A review of the police policy for pursuing fleeing vehicles has recommended extending the rules for abandoning chases.
A senior officer travelling as a passenger in a police car can now call off a chase, and pursuits must also cease if police know who the alleged offender is, or if they lose sight of the fleeing vehicle.
Police Association president Greg O'Connor told Morning Report the minute the offenders know that there is a point at which the police must stop the pursuit, they will go faster.
Mr O'Connor cites examples in Christchurch where drivers have gone faster knowing the police will have to pull up.
Grandmother of injured boy wants all chases stopped
An Auckland woman whose grandson was severely injured during a police pursuit says banning car chases is the only way to keep innocent bystanders safe.
A constable's car struck a lamp post which hit Nisha Ali's grandson Farhat Buksh as he walked to school in Mount Albert in 2007.
Mrs Ali says the changes do not go far enough and all police pursuits should be stopped. She says her 16-year-old grandson sustained such severe brain damage in the crash that she does not know what the future holds for him.
"It has ruined his life, he wasn't even involved in the incident, he was just passing through when the car hit the pole and the pole fell on him," she says.
Call for inquiry into policy
The national manager of road policing, Superintendent Paula Rose, says most of the recommended changes will make current rules more explicit, and describes some of the changes as substantial.
Although pursuits are high-risk situations, she says, police are also criticised if they decide not to give chase and a crash occurs later involving other members of the public.
Superintendent Rose says over the last four years numbers of pursuits have been starting beginning to reduce, however a spokesman for the Campaign Against Drugs on Roads (CANDOR), Rachael Ford, says there's been a 400% increase in police chases since 2002.
The group has reiterated its call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into road safety including how police chases are managed.
Ms Ford says an inquiry should examine the 2003 boy racer legislation and whether police are set a quota of arrests for driving offences.
