Police News March 05.indd - New Zealand Police Association

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March 2005Police News The Voice of PoliceLetters to the Editor Write it here! Letters to the Editor are welcome.Signed letters are preferred, but in all cases the writer’s name and address must be supplied.Names will be published unless there is a good reason for anonymity. The editor reserves theright to edit, abridge or decline letters without explanation. Email to: editor@policeassn.org.nzor write it to the Editor at PO Box 12344, Wellington. Letters under 400 words are preferred.A Minister, some vestsand a ‘waste’ of inkI would like to respond to issues raised inthe January/February edition of Police News.1. With regard to Police Minister, GeorgeHawkin’s comments about Priority One jobresponse times, specifically “...officers needto focus on the incident rather than wastingvaluable time contacting Comms to log theirarrival”. There are two issues here. Firstly,if arrivals are not logged, how are responsetimes to be measured? Secondly, thisludicrous comment flies completely in theface of staff safety, an issue so often touted asbeing a priority. This sort of thinking tendsto suggest that the Minister is on anotherplanet regarding being in touch with therealities of policing today.2. I see the trial of stab-proof vests getsanother mention. Haven’t these been“trialed” for long enough? I doubt thedelays in providing the vests are due totrialing times, rather an unwillingness tospend the dosh, or perhaps an on-goingsearch for the cheapest option - so much forstaff safety being paramount.3. To those of you who think writing to theEditor to complain about ongoing poorfunding, lack of resources and misguidedmanagement is hopefully going to bring aboutsome miracle..........we’re just wasting ink!Jeff Welch(Nelson)Thanks for your letter Jeff. Let me assureyou that you did not waste any ink inconveying your comments, for they are asrelevant as the next person’s. A letter tothe Editor may not get something doneovernight, or maybe even at all, but thisforum affords members, often with verydifferent views on issues, a chance toexpress those views without fear or favour.Letters also have another value - theyprovide the Association with a snapshot ofmembers’ concerns and in that way thesemay then be acted upon. It may seem likea mere ripple at the time when you putpen to paper but ripples can sometimesbecome floods and knock down themightiest walls. The concern of CommsCentre workers was just one such examplewhere the views of members, expressed tothe Association directly and through PoliceNews, led to a long-overdue review ofPolice Comms Centres. - Editor.STU’s dedicated officersRecently, Road Policing staff has beensubjected to ill-informed comment andtargeted criticisim - no doubt part ofsome orchestrated campaign. I accept itselection year and no doubt more will come.However, letters such as J Currie’s (Jan/FebPolice News) should not go unchallenged.Canterbury STU (Safety Traffic Unit) worksclosely with GBD (General Duties Branch)staff and the relationship is very good. Thisis illustrated by the accolades I regularlyreceive from GDB supervisors regardingthe support from STU. We also supportthe district in all manner of events, such assporting matches and large public events aswell as providing scene guards. As recentlyas a fortnight ago, STU guarded a largecentral city fire scene for four days.Every one of the five GDB sections suppliesa member for a six-month rotation throughSTU. So, at anytime, there are five GDBmembers doing rotation through STU.What is perturbing, however, is ill-informedcomment by members, including somesupervisors (who I thought should knowbetter) regarding the nature of STU work.To suggest that STU are out revenuegathering is complete nonsense. In April2002, the Auditor General clearly dismissedany notion of a link between road policingactivity and revenue gathering. Somecomment from members has been sofar removed from reality that I am led toquestion their motives.Frankly, the Canterbury STU staff andsupervisors are a dedicated groupcommitted to reducing road traumaand have my full support. If there is a“perceived” problem with staff the mattershould be addressed with the respectivesupervisor. Every sworn member, no matterwhat their core function, has a responsibilityand indeed a duty, to uphold the rule oflaw. Their core functions are secondarywhen it comes to attending Priority Onejobs. So is helping your mates - basic stuff.Comments by some uninformed members,sometimes hiding behind the veiled cloakof anonymity, and in effect causing staffdissension, surely brings into question theirown professionalism and loyalty.Trevor Pullen(O/C Canterbury STU)Charging tourist doesus no creditIn January 2005 I read that Police haddecided to charge a 64-year-old Germantourist with careless use of a motor vehiclecausing death. He had reversed his vehicleout of a motel carpark in Fox Glacier andsubsequently ran over his wife. This wasa tragic situation and once again we haveshot ourselves in the foot as far as publicrelations go by not using any discretion indeciding to prosecute this tourist.Don’t you think this man has beentraumatised enough by killing his ownwife? But, no, he has to be prosecuted andwe have to make an example of him. Whatare we trying to achieve here? I note thatproceedings won’t be initiated unless hereturns to New Zealand, so that precludeshim from ever visiting here again.I think the fact that he was responsible forhis wife’s passing is punishment enoughand to further incriminate him does ourreputation no favours at all. The day thisdecision was made was not a proud one forthe New Zealand Police.Neil Barton(Auckland)The people make the jobDue to a health issue I recently left thePolice a bit earlier than I ever intended. As aresult I had to attend a final interview withCes, my boss. One of the questions was:What did I most enjoy about my time in thePolice. I answered that it was the people Iworked with.This is not a letter about tickets, policy orany of those other serious issues.But I would like to take the opportunity topublicly acknowledge my colleagues of thelast 14 years who have left me with greatmemories of my time in the NZ Police.Firstly, thanks to my wise older brother,Martin, whose footsteps I followed into theNZ Police. I will always be grateful to him.And thanks to Bruce Woodley (taught himeverything he knows), Scotty (when dowe get to drive these buses?) and GeorgeStaunton (King’s Head Pub, England) all ofWing 122.Thanks also need to go to: All of NewPlymouth Section 4 from Sept 1991 to Sept1994 including three excellent Sergeantsin Mike Letica, John Thorne and GrantCoward. The Dog Section throughout thattime, yes even you Roman. Oh yeah, and AlMunro and DA Geraghty.The Hawera CIB 1995 to 2000, HardballHermann, Frodo McRae, Isaacson, Barnes,Karen and D/Sgt’s Lysaght and Sutton. Red,Lids, Trev, Kahu and Kerry “Purple Death”Lane, Dave Laumatia, Sears, Dan Dickison,Andy Saunders, Steve “Kurow, Kurow, Kurow”Baddock, Greg Sutherland and Karl of Kaiapoi,Graham Dunn, Ted and Trev. See you at “TheMount, Great Custard Pie Eat Off”, 2006.All the boys at Richmond, I enjoyedcovering your patch from Wakefield, PeteCarmody who schooled me on the finerpoints of Road Policing, and in turn Itutored him on the important stuff.The Nelson CIB office, especially thosereprobates Prentice, Nally and Adlam (heywhat did you have for dinner last night?).Ces McCoy (larger than life), and a specialthanks to Kevin Tiernan for transport towork throughout 2004 and Crazy Kaveney.Milton and Maitland of the coast andthe team at the Blenheim CIB and. TimJohnston of Queenstown.42
New Zealand Police AssociationMarch 2005Lastly, a big thanks to my old friend SteveDunn of Taupo, a truly good bastard in thePolice and my best man in ‘98 and a goodmate.Thanks everyone. See you round.Pat Tunley(Nelson)When will the Policehonour ALL their dead?In December of 2003, United States BorderPatrol Agent, James P Epling, was on dutyat the Colorado River outside of Yuma,Arizona. Epling was married, with threeyoung children.During the night, Agent Epling and otherofficers found a group of Chinese nationalswho were trying to illegally enter the UnitedStates by crossing the Colorado River. Hehelped to pull a woman from the fastmovingwater. Then he moved off intothe darkness to continue searching. Hedisappeared and his body was not found forthree days. A post-mortem revealed he diedfrom accidental drowning, and that therewas no foul play involved.So why am I telling you this story?Simply because Agent Epling’s death “inthe line of duty,” where he put his ownlife at risk to help others, and irrespectiveof the fact that he did not die through theunlawful act of another, still means thathis passing was honoured at the annuallaw enforcement memorial services inWashington, DC in May 2004 and his namewill be permanently engraved on the LawEnforcement Officers’ Memorial.If a member of the New Zealand Police diedunder similar circumstances their namewould not be memorialised on the “HonourWall” at the Royal New Zealand PoliceCollege. And I have to ask - why not?Without diminishing the supreme sacrificeof those members whose names appearon that wall, why is it that only those whodied by an unlawful act are remembered onthe wall and not also those who, absent of“unlawfulness,” still gave their lives in thelawful execution of their duty?Last year marked the 63rd anniversaryof the murder of four police officersby Eric Stanley George Graham atKowhitirangi (formerly Koiterangi) nearGreymouth. District Commander GrantO’Fee, ably assisted by staff - and withnot inconsiderable input from the PoliceAssociation - ensured their deaths are morefittingly honoured at the scene. Needless tosay, the names of Sergeant William Cooperand his staff are recorded at the College.In the USA, and in most Australian states - toname but two foreign jurisdictions - the Policehave seen fit to centrally record, and honour,all staff who die during the course of theirduty. In belatedly honouring those Hokitikamembers who were slain, why not also choose2004 as the year to honour all members ofthe New Zealand Police who have died in thelawful execution of their duty?Trevor Morley(Wellington)A little bit of commonsensegoes a long wayFunny story…about two years ago aneighbour of mine, Steve, a former policeofficer had problems with a “villain” from upthe road. Let’s call him Mr D. This particularyoung man, for whatever reason, chose togo down a long driveway to throw rocks atSteve’s house. Steve came out of his house andfollowing a confrontation; the Police arrivedand arrested Mr D for disorderly behaviour.He was subsequently bailed, with conditions,to appear at a later date.During the ensuing days Mr D attempted tointimidate Steve on a number of occasions andeventually smashed up his letterbox. He was,as a consequence, committed for assessmentpursuant to the Mental Health Act, whichsaved the local cops from binning him again.I thought I had remained somewhat distantfrom the whole thing, which seemed toresolve itself with the troubled youth gonefrom our sleepy little street...well, all untilI was contacted by Professional Standards,requesting an interview in relation to acomplaint they had received about me, fromthe boy’s mother – who at that time I hadn’t met.I learned that she worked at my localsupermarket.An investigator subsequently interviewedme [I understand the process of a PCAand the necessity to do so] and during theinterview, I learned that the boy’s motherhad complained about my behaviour at thesupermarket, whilst off duty. It transpired thatshe alleged that I had filled a shopping basketwith stuff [probably cop food…doughnuts,chocolate biscuits, chippies and beer] anddropped it aggressively on the conveyor beltat her checkout…so loudly it sounded like agunshot! She further cited the September 11terrorist action as a mitigating factor to herbeing ‘jumpy’.Allegedly, I then made various threats inrespect of getting her son.Naturally, I had no recollection of the incident asthe only fear I normally create at a supermarketis to the lollies in the pick ‘n’ mix bulk bins. Is $8on lollies too much? – …I digress.I certainly didn’t threaten Mr D’s mum – fora number of reasons, mostly because atthat time I didn’t know who she was. I alsolearned that she had complained about anumber of other police officers for variousother things as well.As for the terrorist activity with a shoppingbasket….well it’s got me stumped, but to befair, maybe there were Afghans in with thedoughnuts, beer and chippies.Anyway, following the interview, I heardnothing more until recently – two years after.Professional Standards advised that the file hadbeen reviewed in Wellington and a numberof issues still remained… such as the womanbelieving that I was a dog handler. One ofthese was whether I was a dog handler. Nowwhere would that come from – because, as amember of the CIB, it is evident I am cultured,well-mannered and can operate a knife andfork?It also seemed that the reviewing officer inWellington, was unhappy with the expressionsof concern that the original investigator hadabout this woman’s mental health. I amleft wondering what happened to applyingcommonsense in summarising an investigation- or have we become too politically correct forcommonsense?Get that man a pie!Glenn Baldwin(Auckland)Time consuming timesheetsCan someone please explain to me therelevance and necessity of filling in timesheets each day?I am sure that their mere existence keeps100 non-sworn in employment and makesfor nice bar graphs at management meetingsbut I am also sure that this time could bespent more effectively in roles that actuallysupport frontline officers and work towardsour core responsibilities.I have never seen one criminal caught, orone crash prevented by someone with hisor her nose in a timesheet book looking forsome obscure code.In this age of technical wizadry (andWanganui) everything we do and everywherewe go is recorded. With AVLs, our every movecan be recorded and with ICAD the amountof time we spend dealing with incidents isrecorded. The number of arrests we make andtickets we issue is available at the touch of abutton. The number of court files, doclocsand every other piece of paper we submit isrecorded somewhere.Why do we have to duplicate or triplicatethis information on to timesheets? The AMScode sheets, which get bigger each year,are a perfect example - there are codes foreverything under the sun. Someone who ison a deployment to the Solomon Islands hasa code. Everyone knows that the officer is inthe Solomon Islands, so why does it need tobe written down on a timesheet?Road Policing units have to note down everyvehicle that they stop and how many IONsand TONs they issue. You know how manytickets they have issued, they have to handthem in! To top it off, at the end of the month,the Road Policing officers have to complete amonthly return. This involves going throughall of their timesheets, adding up everythingthat they have already written down, andputting this onto another piece of paper. If youran a business in this fashion it would havegone bankrupt years ago.If the bosses really need to have pie chartsand bar graphs for their meetings, how abouta compromise? For a two-week period everyyear (or two) we perform time and motionstudies. We record what we have done andthis is used as a representative sample. Thissystem works perfectly well in most otherparts of the policing world.We could utilise all of the time that is freed up,for both sworn and non-sworn, by spending iton policing tasks, not administration.What is the timesheet code for ‘going insane’?Mark Fleming(Auckland)43
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