POLICE SACRIFICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 114, 17 May 1933, Page 11

POLICE SACRIFICE.

TWENTY-SIX LIVES. . FINE RECORD IN SYDNEY. EFFICIENCY—AND PAY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 12. Last week the Chief Secretary, Mr. Chaffey, unveiled a memorial tablet at police headquarters to the 26 members of the force who, during the past 33 years, have loet their lives in the discharge of their duties. In 11 of these caees, he eaid, the planner of death could only be described as "cold-blooded murder"; but of course there have been other cases in which officers -of the law, through the brutality of criminals and the apathy of bj'atanders, have suffered serious physical injuries or have been maimed for life. It is to be hoped that the publicity time given to the heroism of our policemen and the terrible dangere to which they arc constantly exposed may encourage people in general to estimate their scrvieee at a higher value, and may also induce courts and judges to enforce, heavier penalties against those who deliberately obstruct or injure them while they are attempting to secure ■respect for the law. Two Thousand in City. It ie not surprising that the question of pay provided material for long discussions at the recent police conference. But even the modest goal of £1 a day— very little remuneration for such' grave risks to life and limb—is still far distant for the rank and file, and in these times of industrial and financial depression the tendency hae been not only to reduce wages and salaries, but to cut down the numbers of the force as well. The police force of the State of New South Wales is only 3164 strong— representing one policeman for nearly 700 inhabitants. Over 2000 of theee are stationed in or near the metropolitan area, so that they arlj in close contact with the city; and there ie ample evidence to show that in spite of the steady increase in the city population, they have succeeded in keeping the activities of the criminal section of the community within very narrow bounds. During the past twelve -months there have been no warehouse robberies'or burglaries of a serious character, and an ex-convict, being asked the other day by an inspector to account for this failing-off in serious crime, answered plaintively: "There are too many of you fellows about."

Modern Organisation. As a matter of fact it is not so much the number as the organisation of the police that counte in the repression of crime. The motor car, the telephone and wireless have enabled the police to spread their nets more widely and to follow clues 8r "information received" far more rapidly than was possible 20 or 30 years back. Not long ago a. mysterious tapping was heard in a Pitt Street bank at 3 a.m.; and within five minutes two detective patrols, two wireless patrols and reinforcements from the neighbouring stations, amounting in all to 20 men, had surrounded the building. Aβ it happened, this was a false alarm, but it gave the police force a splendid chance to demonstrate the efficiency of their system. The cost of the police force to the State is over £1,200,000 a year—rather less than 10/ per head of population — and surely there could be no better investment of the public revenue.