Teen charged twice in three days over alleged stolen car pursuits

A 14-year-old boy has been charged for the second time in three days after allegedly leading ACT police on a pursuit in a stolen car.

It is one of several recent incidents that has prompted the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) to call for tougher bail laws in the territory.

Officers spotted the stolen white Skoda Octavia at Yarralumla on Sunday night and tracked it through a number of suburbs in Canberra's south.

Police deployed tyre spikes at Kambah but the driver allegedly refused to stop and continued to speed through nearby streets.

The car eventually came to a standstill, and the 14-year-old alleged driver — who was already on bail — was arrested and charged with dangerous driving, unlicensed driving, failing to stop for police, and driving a vehicle without consent.

Police said the boy was one of seven teenagers involved in a dramatic stolen vehicle pursuit in Canberra just three days earlier on Thursday night, where an officer was driven at and a police car was hit.

"We were literally talking centimetres from a tragedy, a real tragedy — that's how dire things are,"

AFPA president Alex Caruana said.

"These men and women are out there to keep the community safe and they're being targeted by these boofheads."

Ambulance tailgated, police say

In a separate incident on Friday, two men — who were also on bail at the time — allegedly tailgated an ambulance under lights and sirens in a stolen four-wheel drive.

Police said the car had followed the paramedics through red lights and had driven alongside the ambulance in bike lanes and on the road shoulder.

The vehicle later struck a police car before officers pursued it into Lawson, where it drove through multiple locked gates at a construction site.

Two men, aged 19 and 30, have been charged with breach of bail and riding in a motor vehicle without consent.

Police are searching for a third occupant of the car who fled the scene.

Superintendent Anthony Brown said the incidents had been "frustrating" for officers, especially as the alleged offenders flouted bail.

"The danger to the public, the danger to our members and the danger to these offenders is immeasurable really," Superintendent Brown said.

"It's just silly, stupid behaviour that puts a lot of people at risk.

"We do our best to avoid putting people in these systems and the last thing we want to do is put 14, 15-year-old kids into jail.

"The courts and everyone gives them a chance and gives them bail and they just completely disregard it."

'They can't be trusted'

Mr Caruana said the incidents underscored the need for stronger bail laws for recidivist offenders.

"If someone has already made a commitment to the courts that they're not going to do something … and they break that promise, they can't be trusted," he said.

"They're a threat to the community and they need to have their bail conditions either really, really firm or taken away and they are kept in remand until such time as their charges are heard."

The AFPA is also calling for mandatory minimum sentencing for offenders who target emergency service personnel.

"If someone's using a vehicle, for instance, to try to harm a paramedic or a police officer, that is a serious offence and we should really consider some mandatory sentencing for those type of behaviours," Mr Caruana said.

"Other jurisdictions have it, it's not controversial, so why can't we have it in the ACT?

"That would be a really strong stance to put out there to make sure that the men and women that are keeping this community safe, that are literally saving people's lives, are safe."

The ACT government has been contacted for comment.

An inquiry into proposed changes to the ACT's bail laws is due to report back in August.