Officer’s Misgivings On Police Merit Promotion

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 15

Officer’s Misgivings On Police Merit Promotion

•The Press' Special Service

HAMILTON, December 4. The new police merit scheme gave him a sense of misgiving, said Superintendent G. H. L. Holt at a police social function. He will retire at the end of the year. As a result of the merit scheme there had been an emergence of alleged experts, Mr Holt said. He felt it was a phase that would pass. To his way of thinking a police officer was not meant to be a narrow expert. “The important thing for a policeman,” Mr Holt said “is to gain the respect and trust of the people among whom he lives and works. It is my conviction that public confidence is the most important thing that makes me distrust the merit scheme. _ “How is a policeman s merit io be assessed?” he asked. *lf it can be done scientifically then I would be impressed. If only there was some test that was simple and reliable. If thefe was a test of merit that was as as a blood test is m its own “But when merit has to be assessed by a method that relies for judgment on individual bias, with its inconsistencies and inaccuracies, then the position has to be viewed cautiously. I re commend the Police Association to watch the situation very carefully. Dedication to the police service

is the most important thing for a young officer. I have found the brilliant policeman to be generally a pest—if nothing else.” What has been his own constant and reliable guide since he joined the force on November 26, 1919, was the oath he then gave that he would serve honestly and honourably.

“I have never forgotten that the young constable has to be helped,” Mr Holt said. “It is no good, as a senior officer, getting him into your office and then tearing a strip off him for something that most likely you did and got away with in your younger day. Help by Officers

“A young man who comes into the force has very little knowledge for a start. A senior officer’s best function is to inform and guide him.

“I advise any young man that the police force is a great job. He must be dedicated to it to make a good policeman, but it is a job with a future.” Mr Holt spoke appreciatively of the work of the wives of country constables. He said that he would like to see the department make them a grant for their services. Because the wives had to answer calls while their husbands were out on duty a third of the work of running a country station came their way.