Police use 'tortoise' technique: Officers nab fleeing driver, impound 16 cars

The result of burnouts and boy racer activity in a vacant car park in central Hastings over the weekend. Photo / Paul Taylor

Police have impounded 16 further vehicles for a raft of offences across the twin cities, including a fleeing driver.

Inspector Matt Broderick, road policing manager for Eastern Police, said half of the vehicles impounded over the weekend were specifically seized because of anti-social road-user behaviors, and were impounded in Bayview, Maraenui, Clive, Havelock North, Akina, and Flaxmere.

He said this did not necessarily represent where the offending occurred.

"Often police will employ the 'tortoise' rather than the 'hare' approach - slow and steady gathering of information can lead to better and safer outcomes," Broderick said.

An example over the weekend was when police attempted to stop a speeding motorist, where the driver then failed to stop and increased speed.

"A pursuit was not initiated, but the driver was stopped by another patrol car later in the day, and instead of simply receiving an infringement for excessive speed, [the driver] now has a court appearance, a suspended license for 28 days, and was liable for their vehicle to be impounded."

He said the inconvenience in losing their license, their vehicle, and appearing in court "pales in comparison to the potential outcome of them crashing at excessive speed and injuring or killing someone else or themselves."

Earlier this month, police revealed they impound about 25 cars per week in Napier and Hastings 2022 for all offences.

Vehicles impounded by police in Napier and Hastings for all offences, not just street racing. Photo / Warren Buckland

Most eventually return to their owners, but some will be destroyed.

Broderick said members of the public were encouraged to report anti-social driving to police if it was safe to do so.

"Most people carry some form of recording device these days, and if they can record safely - and not put themselves in danger - what's going on and the registration number, and forward that to the police, then we will follow up that information.

"We are not all-seeing and all-knowing; we need the public's help to identify where these locations are, what's going on, and particularly, who is behaving in that way so we can hold them to account."

Broderick said the average impound figure has been fairly constant for the past year, with no significant upward or downward trends to be noted.