POLICE AND PUBLIC Jobs That Policemen Are Seldom Thanked For

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31188, 12 October 1966, Page 8

POLICE AND PUBLIC Jobs That Policemen Are Seldom Thanked For

(Bu

Our Police Reporter

A police constable, driving home from duty in his own car one Saturday and about to take his wife out to dinner, was forced off the road and across the footpath by a swerving car which overtook him. The car continued on, swerving all over the road. The constable reversed from the footpath and stopped the other driver, who had been drinking.

The off-duty constable telephoned the central police station from a nearby house and a patrol car was sent. Three children, the oldest aged six, were in the offender’s car.

The driver had to be taken to the police station to be examined by a doctor to ascertain whether he was fit to drive. The constable had to go to the station to make out the charge sheet. He made his dinner date—two hours late.

I drove the offender’s car, preceded by a patrol car, to his home. A constable knocked on the door. A girl, aged about nine, opened it, saw the policeman, and said: “What’s dad been up to now?”

Other children in the house were watching television. Their mother was out. The girl aged nine assured the police she could look after everything until mum came home. Generally speaking, the

police are never right. If they do not take action on a complaint someone asks why they are not “doing their job.” If they do take action, someone protests that they are exceeding their powers, and “throwing the book at people.” Constables who were called to an accident one evening found a severely damaged car near the gutter and on the wrong side of the road. Two men had been in the car. One had his face badly cut by the broken windscreen. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance. The other man had been drinking. He said he had been driving, that the car swerved across the road and had hit a pole. The constables saw no marks on the pole.* The dam-

age to the front of the cat was not what these experienced policemen thought consistent with hitting a pole. They arrested the man, took him to the police station and a doctor found him to be unfit to drive. Mystery Solved It was a dark night and none of the people at the

- scene had observed what had happened. All had been attracted by the sound of a crash. A constable going to make inquiries at nearby houses noticed that a car parked on the opposite side of the road and facing the same way as the damaged vehicle was also considerably damaged about the front. Inquiries at other houses produced the driver of the second car and the case was solved. This young man had earlier parked his car, correctly, on the same side of the street as the wrecked car was found. After swerving to the right side of the road, the moving vehicle had hit the correctlyparked car head on. The brakes on the parked car were not on and it was not in gear.

The impact threw the parked car back on to the edge of a culvert, turned it backwards through 180 degrees, and left it neatly parked on the other side of the road. The oil sump of the parked car had been broken in the crash. A trail of oil, revealed by the light of a constable’s torch, curved across the street from the point of impact to where the car was “parked” on the other side of the road. Week-end Accidents This was the most unusual of 45 motor accidents, including two fatal accidents, to which the Christchurch police were called during that weekend. The police are required by law to examine every accident involving injury. Every motorist involved in an accident causing injury is required by law to report to the police. All these accidents have to be fully described in typed reports. Prosecutions follow most accidents the police are called on to attend. Part of the record of an accident is a statistical form, completed in triplicate. The police, under-staffed, spend a great deal of time in attending to and recording motor accidents —many of them of a minor nature. When two vehicles collide the drivers almost invariably disagree about who was at fault. Human nature is such that the first step of the experienced policeman at an accident is to separate the parties so that there is no quarrelling and statements can be taken from the parties separately. A driver may be genuinely convinced that certain events occurred and be prepared to swear to this. Yet all the evidence —skid marks, independent witnesses, or damage—shows that he is mistaken. The police often take the brunt of the blame when a fair and accurate report

leads to court proceedings and the motorist, who thought he was in the right, is found by the court to be at fault. Domestic Quarrels

The policeman’s position of being an independent referee in a dispute is seldom more repugnant to him than when he is called to a domestic quarrel between a husband and wife.

I accompanied policemen who were called to several of these complaints. Most often the wife complains of assault. When the police ask if she wishes to make a formal, written complaint so that her husband can be arrested and taken before the court on a charge, the wife nearly always declines. Frequently, there is evidence of assault—a black eye, bleeding nose—but a wife cannot be compelled to give evidence against a husband.

The police never enjoy this work. Often, although it is obvious that a heavy assault has taken place, the police cannot take action unless one of the parties lays a complaint. Noisy parties, of which the complainant vindictively exaggerates the character, are another annoyance to the police. Persons who report “noisy parties” often do not want “official” action taken. A policeman is neither judge nor jury. He cannot act unless he believes the law has been broken or unless the complainant is ready to give evidence in court. In most of these incidents. The policeman cannot hope to satisfy both parties. Frequently he cannot satisfy either party and takes a great deal of uncalled for and unfair abuse.