Australian Police To Shoot Armed Terrorists On Sight – Commissioner

Acting Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas confirmed the change as he renewed calls for police to be given 28 days to detain and question terror suspects in the wake of the Paris attacks, rather than the eight days presently allowed by federal laws.

“Kaldas, however, said police would in most other cases officers would still try to use the ‘contain and negotiate” approach that has been in place for two decades, to deal with armed offenders.

The training has drawn on U.S. counter-terrorism operations and guidance.

Six attacks in Australia have been foiled over the past 12 months, according to the government, but several have not, including a police employee being shot in the back of the head in Sydney last month by a teenager reportedly shouting religious slogans.

“In a traditional siege situation we usually have an offender whose intention is to do harm to an individual or a groups of individuals, but usually it means there is an ability to negotiate with that individual”. “If police see evidence of people being killed they have to act”.

Since then, radical Islamist groups or individuals have carried out a number of attacks, culminating in the atrocities in Paris on Friday that left 129 dead.

A spokesman for NSW police said: “The program has been designed specifically to equip officers with the additional skills, training and resources they need when first on scene at a CT or related incident”.

“These brutal terrorists do not negotiate”, she said.

Australian police would have the power to shoot armed offenders in terrorist situations on sight under a new policy.

However, Mr Kaldas has stressed the “shoot on sight” order would not be appropriate in all circumstances.

Mr Stewart reiterated there was no immediate terrorist threat in Queensland. “It is very important that our police officers are aware of these differences and are able to respond to minimise the risk to not only themselves and the community, and by community I mean the people who are still alive in an active armed assault”.