THE POLICE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1898, Page 2

THE POLICE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The police have been rather prominently before the public lately and not in a favourable light. With your permission I should like to state what I believe to be the true reason of the friction between the two parties.

For the best part of 20 years I knocked about London as a young man about town, with, I think, plenty of observation, and I had of course many opportunities of studying the way the London police carried out their duties on many hundreds of occasions. The moral force exerted by a single London policeman is enormous. I have seen a member of the force walk up to a lot of half drunken quarrelsome costers with 'Now then, ' gentlemen, what's all this about; go home like good fellows, and don't give me trouble.' The row would cease at once. They would reply, 'All right, sir, -we're off; come on Bill,' etc.,

j and away tliey would go. Now, if j these men had been handled by one of j the young colonial police going among them and pushing one in one direction, one in another as I have seen done here, the matter would have ended in the Police Court, and all for the want of a little tact, a splendid quality possessed by most of the London police, and used !by them to perfection as a rule. I believe many of the colonial police are grand men, desirous of carrying- out their duties, but not properly instructed as to the exact position they hold towards the public; and here I believe lies the whole matter in a nutshell. The police are the servants of the puElic, not their masters, as some of the young ones evidently believe by the way they | comport themselves when addressing the ■ public. Let them use tact, and a little j more of what I can only describe as | gentlemanly behaviour, and we • should have far fewer cases inour police courts, and a policeman's life would be a' happier and more respected one; for respect begets respect.—l am, etc., FRED. A. G, COTTERELL. Mount Albert.