WA police union bans high speed chases

West Australian police officers are "absolutely outraged" they are being disciplined over high-speed pursuits on the basis of a flawed GPS-like system, union president Russell Armstrong says.

The union has told WA's 5800 police officers to suspend all high speed pursuits in the wake of disciplinary action against a traffic officer involved in a police chase in which a 15-year-old was killed.

Mr Armstrong said the officer has been disciplined on the basis of the vehicle's automatic vehicle locator (AVL) which he said is a flawed tracking device and gives inaccurate speed readings.

"We've had vehicles located in the Indian Ocean between Rottnest Island and Cottesloe, it's absolute rubbish," he told AAP.

"We've had vehicles that are travelling in Perth and the AVL shows that the vehicle is still sitting in the yard at the police station about 30km away. It's a GPS and that's all it is."

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan criticised the union action, calling it irresponsible, and will meet with the police union on Monday to try to resolve the issue.

"I don't think this action is satisfactory at all and I think potentially it could lead to some level of anarchy if it becomes a common approach to high-speed pursuits," Mr O'Callaghan.

Mr Armstrong said he was "amazed" by the police commissioner's comments.

"I totally reject that, it's an absolute load of rubbish and I'm amazed that a man of his standing in the community would talk about anarchy," he said.

The union would be pushing for the disciplinary action against the police officer to be dropped, with Mr Armstrong saying he had done nothing wrong.

He said the AVL in the officer's vehicle reported it as travelling through a red light during the chase on April 15, however an independent witness said it stopped and waited for the light to change.

Although the police department reported the officer was travelling at 164km/h, Mr Armstrong said the officer set the car's speed indicator to 140km/h and dropped his speed when it beeped as it hit 144km/h.

"The officer is now receiving this managerial action plan that will be against his name until the day he retires or resigns," he said.

"He's done nothing wrong, he maintains that, his passenger maintains that and the independent witness maintains that the police did the right thing."

Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk shared the union's concerns about disciplinary action being based solely on the AVLs, but did not believe they were being "realistic" in having the system scrapped.

"Given other jurisdictions are considering introducing it, I don't know how realistic that is but I think there does need to be some level of accountability," Ms Quirk said.

"It's just the way that information is being used and the weight that's put on it."