The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1955. The Police Force

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 12

The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1955. The Police Force

It has been obvious to the public tor a long time that a struggle had been going on behind the scenes in the police force. With the resignation of the Commissioner of Police, it is clear that victory has gone to the force, which apparently was determined not to have Mr Compton as Commissioner and was equally determined not to have him as a member of the temporary Police Commission of three. The vanquished are less easily discerned. Mr Compton will be well (some may think, too well) compensated for his surrender of an important public office. The Government may not suffer very much loss of face through the defiance and defeat of its authority, "with which, as it was bound to do, it supported Mr Compton. The Government has at least purchased—although at high cost—its opportunity to reorganise the administration of the force, which, the Prime Minister says, must be “ begun at the top ”, The public, whose interest in all this should be paramount, could be the real sufferers. Time will tell. At present too little is known of the real issues in the struggle; the nature and depth of the grievances nourished by the force over the last few years can only be guessed at by the man in the street. If the administration of the force has been oppressive upon its officers, no great harm may come from their determined—and successful—efforts to remove what they believe, rightly or wrongly, to be the source of their discontent. If, on the other hand, the police have no more substantial and reasonable a grievance than their dislike of the Government’s and the Commissioner’s policy of

makin- promotion dependent mainly on abii'ty rather than seniority—which is one of the few bones of contention that has been fought over in the open—the unrest in the force would have to be regarded as an unjustified defiance ■of properly constituted authority. The danger in capitulating to defiance of such a kind is the commonly recognised danger of appeasing militancy. The police force in New x Zealand has an enviable record of loyalty and integrity; and the public will be reluctant to believe, at least in the absence of positive evidence to the contrary, that its officers have

become militant without some provocation. The public will also back the Government to the hilt in its efforts to ensure that in the future the force is efficient, loyal, and contented. "But every member of a force, civil or military, indeed every employee, whether of the State or of a private employer, must be subject, to discipline and authority. Whoever is appointed to succeed Mr Compton—the committee rule is clearly an unsatisfactory stop-gap—will have ' the uneasy knowledge that his predecessor’s authority has been successfully challenged, with what cause and justification the public are presently in no position to judge. That need not, however, stand in the way of a happier era in the police force—provided there is the will for harmony on both sides. The police force should offer to/its officers and to recruits security and rewards appropriate to its important function; and it is a truism that a contented personnel is indispensable to an efficient force. Though discipline .is also essential to the efficiency of a police force, it can and should be a discipline tempered by all reasonable consideration for its individual members. These, undoubtedly, will be the considerations- guiding the Government in reorganising the administration of the police force and in appointing a new Commissioner. They are the best assurance that there will be no repetition of the recent unhappy events.