Police Encouraged To Seek Good Relations With Public

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 14

Police Encouraged To Seek Good Relations With Public

(New Zeauina Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 3. The main stimulus to a healthy and beneficial relationship between citizens and police must come from the policeman himself in his day-to-day dealings with the public, the Commissioner of Police (Mr W. S. Brown )•> said in his annual report to parliament

“Emphasis is given in all stages of training to the need and value of a courteous, friendly and helpful attitude,” he said.

“The results of the training are difficult to assess, but happily I can say that genuine complaints against the police during the year have been few.” Mr Brown said most of the public were law-abiding and,- in this, the police had their greatest asset in almost all phases of their work.

“Law-abiding citizens toay be of tremendous assistance in both the prevention and detection of crime. But this great public asset will lie dormant, or even waste away, without careful and continuous effort by the police to enlist the aid of the potentially willing. “On the other hand, public

assistance rendered with the best intentions can readily result in hindrance and actually add to the work of the police if not properly directed." Mr Brown described, as the “key to the proper tapping of the public reserve,” the provision of the fullest information possible, within discretionary limits, of police activities. The main media for this was the press and radio. To the newspapers and the. broadcasting authorities he expressed his thanks for their assistance.