MELBOURNE, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Victorian Police have been banned from shooting at moving vehicles following a spate of ramming attacks on officers.
A series of incidents in which police officers have fired their weapons at moving vehicles has forced Victoria Police to ban its officers from doing so because of the potential danger.
Earlier this month, a motorist was shot and killed by a Victoria Police officer, whom the driver had pinned against a wall with a van in Melbourne's northwest.
Meanwhile, an officer fired at a vehicle involved in another ramming in Wodonga, 300 km northeast of Melbourne, and a stolen vehicle was shot at by police in the city's southeast.
A directive issued to all officers by Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp instructed officers not to shoot "at or towards moving vehicles."
"It has been proven through training and experience, in Australia and in the wider policing community abroad, that if you shoot at a moving vehicle with the intention of stopping it, you won't," Crisp said in his directive published by News Limited on Monday.
"If you shoot at the driver and seriously injure or kill them, then the vehicle is out of control. There is a significant risk of injury to your partner or members of the public.
"In some situations, when police vehicles have been rammed, members (officers) have chosen to exit the police vehicle and run from the impending collisions.
"Be mindful that this could place members at greater risk of physical injury as they are briefly exposed and/or immobilized in the vicinity of a threatening vehicle."
Victoria Police said it would investigate the dramatic rise of ramming incidents aimed at officers recently.
Police statistics revealed that 14 officers in Victoria were injured in 104 vehicle rammings in 2015/16 compared to just four injuries from 36 incidents in the previous year.
Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Saturday that the state would take in thousands more police recruits to counter the rise of rammings as well as a youth crime wave.
