Wheel Clamp

The Standard Operating Procedure for using the wheel clamp within policy

As per Section 5 of the Equipment Policy, you must only clamp a vehicle when:

• • It is liable to asset forfeiture as prescribed within the relevant offence that the driver or vehicle has committed.

  • It is in a position where it is causing or is suspected that it will cause an obstruction to access, the flow of traffic and/or pedestrians.

  • You have a reasonably held belief that clamping said vehicle would significantly benefit an ongoing or planned situation and/or provide a strong tactical advantage. For example, clamping vehicles belonging to criminals prior to a police raid of their property in order to prevent escape.

    • The wheel clamp should not be used to escalate situations and should only be used to this effect if it is in the interest of preventing crime before it happens.

The policy also states that you must remain with any vehicle you have clamped until it is taken by RC and/or impounded, the wheel clamp has been removed or you have a justifiable reason to leave that vehicle.

What constitutes a justifiable reason to leave a vehicle wheel clamped is at your discretion and is dependent on the situation. You must consider factors such as where the vehicle is, how big it is, why it was clamped and what may happen if you leave it. If a vehicle is obstructing a road/highway you must only leave that vehicle if you need to respond to another life threatening or otherwise urgent emergency. 

Examples of where it would/would not be justifiable to leave a vehicle would be:

• A vehicle is clamped in the bazaar front parking lot for illegal parking and it does not cause any sort of obstruction to the road. Roadcrew have been made aware and you are waiting for them to attend. You are then called by a supervisor to report to the office, or as a supervisor you are requested to attend a supervisor request. It would be justifiable to remove the wheel clamp and attend as the supervisor situation would take priority over the low-impact illegal parking.

• You have stopped an individual at the hospital for reckless driving and have clamped their vehicle as it is liable to asset forfeiture. You are then requested to go to the fire station and clamp an illegally parked vehicle because there are no other traffic officers. Whilst this vehicle is not causing an obstruction, you have stopped the driver because their manner of driving is putting other road users at risk. It would not be justifiable to remove the clamp and attend fire station because of the potential risk you are then putting other road users in by letting them go.

• You have attended a single vehicle road traffic collision on the city bridge. You have attended, placed appropriate cones and signage, made a PBC and have clamped the vehicle. Roadcrew are aware and are rushing to attend. An officer panic button is then activated at the projex apartments and you observe multiple officer life alerts. In this situation, whilst the vehicle is causing a dangerous obstruction to highway users, a life threatening emergency is occurring at projex and you are in close proximity. You would not stay with the vehicle. You should quickly press your ticket book on the vehicle, remove the wheel clamp if you have time and make immediate response to the projex apartments.

• You are currently at a live lane breakdown in which a courier van has hit the forest highway bend and is no longer in drivable condition. You have placed appropriate cones and signage and have made a PBC as well as clamped the van. Roadcrew are aware. You are then requested as a supervisor to take DNA at the slums apartments for a slow time investigation. Due to the size of the van and the potential danger it puts road users in, versus the low priority of taking DNA which a medical technician could do, you would stay with the van until recovery has arrived.

When you are required to leave a clamped vehicle, you must always remove the wheel clamp if it is practicable to do so.