POLICE FORCE STAFFING

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27679, 8 June 1955, Page 11

POLICE FORCE STAFFING

REVIEW OF. DUTIES FAVOURED

“20 PER CENT. BELOW EFFICIENCY STRENGTH”

(New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, June 7. The Police Force in New Zealand, generally speaking, appeared to be about 20 per cent, below efficient staffing strength, the Controller-General of Police (Mr S. T. Barnett) said in Napier today. He is visiting the district on a Dominion tour of police centres.

Mr Barnett said he believed a review of the methods of work in the Police Force would show that much routine work, mostly clerical, could be done by civilians not necessarily trained for police work.

“I think the Post and Telegraph Department, for instance, could take over some phases of the work,” he added. “There is a number of ways in which man-hours in the Police Force can be reorganised to give officers more time for the duties for which they are primarily trained,” Mr Barnett said. Mr Barnett said his Dominion tour had convinced him of the desirability of Police Force dispersal in the suburban and country areas, so that staff was immediately available for any concentrated effort needed in any one particular district.

He paid tribute to the work being done by police officers in suburban and rural areas—work, he said, that was not generally recognised by the public at large.

“One finds a very fine type of police officer in the country areas,” he said, “and I have been deeply moved by the type of dedicated service being rendered by country policemen working in isolated areas. Long hours of work mean nothing to them.”