A Perth paramedic claims police ignored repeated requests to attend the scene they were called out to in Dawesville last month, which they say put first responders’ safety at risk.
St John Ambulance was called to a service station on Bailey Boulevard in the early hours of April 26 following reports a man was unresponsive on the side of the road. The 45-year-old later died in hospital.
St John paramedics have raised concerns about pleas for police to attend dangerous scenes being refused.Credit: St John Ambulance
A paramedic, who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity, claimed another man was “behaving erratically in the area” and both a member of the public and paramedics called WA Police to attend, but officers “refused”.
“Police were called, but they passed the job on to ambos,” the paramedic said.
“The ambulance crew requested police attend multiple times due to an erratic behaving person on scene and the suspicious nature of the call.
“Twice the police refused to attend.”
However, a WA Police spokeswoman vehemently denied officers were made aware of a person acting erratically at the scene, and claimed they were only contacted by St John “for assistance” in relation to a man having “a cardiac arrest whilst driving”.
“Police were not contacted by St John Ambulance prior to St John Ambulance’s attendance, nor did they raise any safety concerns with police,” she said.
“St John Ambulance attended the scene and only upon attendance and only upon commencing of CPR did they request police for ‘crowd management’.
“The initial information and call have been reviewed and there was no reference regarding an ‘erratic behaving male person on scene’. The initial information presented by St John Ambulance was that no criminal offence was reported or suspected, no violence or aggression, and no weapons.
“St John Ambulance then advised that the crew had loaded the patient into the ambulance and left the scene.”
The paramedic said their colleagues attended the scene despite the inherent risk to their own safety and took the 45-year-old man to Peel Health Campus.
He later died, and police subsequently went on to arrest and charge a 35-year-old man with one count of grievous bodily harm. It is alleged the pair were involved in a physical altercation.
“The ambulance crew felt compelled to attend despite concerns for their own safety,” the St John paramedic said.
“They transported the patient to hospital, but it was only after the patient was seen at hospital and the matter deemed a suspicious death that police bothered to attend.
“By that point the ambulance crew had cleaned their vehicles and destroyed evidence.”
But WA Police maintained officers were only notified that someone had been assaulted later by a member of the public, which “resulted in a subsequent police response”.
“It was the first time police were advised an offence (assault) may have occurred,” the spokeswoman said.
The paramedic’s claims came after Police Commissioner Col Blanch on Friday defended officers’ decision not to attend the home of 78-year-old Joan Drane 48 hours before her son allegedly murdered her, despite paramedics’ requests for assistance.
The West Australian reported paramedics made a call on April 27 – a day after the Dawesville incident – after they arrived at the property and found Andre exhibiting signs of severe paranoia, but police did not attend.
Drane also allegedly called triple zero about her son at least three times in the weeks before her death.
But Blanch told 6PR’s Gary Adshead last week that police had made the right call in not attending.
“48 hours prior to the alleged murder, that was the right decision, I’ve listened to the call, and I’m probably one of the only few people that have actually listened to that call,” he said.
“We make decisions on what we know at the time, not what might happen in a couple of days.”
Tension between the two camps appears to have increased since WA Police changed its policy around responding to emergency incidents late last year.
The police spokeswoman said this change was made in consultation with St John Ambulance.
“When an imminent threat of danger is identified, we will always attend, and we will attend quickly,” she said.
The change in policy was “in addition to our standard and ongoing approach to risk assess, escalate or de-escalate the deployment of our resources as dictated by the circumstances”.
But paramedics said they felt “extremely unsafe”.
“If the police were called, then the caller must have suspected they were needed,” the St John paramedic said.
“We’re not trained to restrain offenders, and we don’t have the equipment (Tasers, guns, pepper spray, body armour) that the police have. We don’t have any powers under the Mental Health Act.”
with Hamish Hastie