More Police Work By Policemen

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 20

More Police Work By Policemen

Observations and statistics in a series of articles by our police reporter have pointed to several conclusions about the work of the police and about their dealings with honest and dishonest citizens: many policemen have more work to do than they can reasonably be expected to handle; the authorised establishment based on a proportion of one policeman to 950 citizens is inadequate; many hours of a policeman’s day are spent on paper work or on tasks for which full police training is not required; the police do not have sufficient men to do the fundamental work of foot and car patrols. Within the limits of staff and present organisation the police are doing the best they can to prevent and detect crime and to maintain many other services to the community. When the full resources of the police are called on, their record is good. When especially vigorous drives are made against crime professional criminals recognise the threat and either shift or stop their activities.

New Zealand has remarkably efficient police, who are well trained and well qualified for their responsible task. The task threatens to grow bigger; and it is to be feared that the resources of the police in manpower and equipment may not keep pace. The police are not alone in lacking manpower; and higher pay will not by itself overcome the shortage. Like most industries, professions, and public services the police cannot always ensure that men and women with special skills use their training and experience to the best advantage. Doctors complain that too much of their time is taken up with paper work. Head teachers in large schools have found so much of their time taken up by clerical work that many of them are now provided with clerical assistants. The time has surely come for the police to rearrange their work so that trained men of all ranks spend less time at their desks doing jobs that civilian clerks and competent, perhaps part-time, typists would do better. The civilian staff should be increased to relieve ranking officers of the routine work of administration. Men trained in the detection and prevention of crime should not be employed at counters and typewriters or in the admittedly important but routine business of police communications. Staff employed in a police station must be reliable and discreet; but security should present no greater difficulties in the Police Force than in the Armed Services, which usefully employ civilian staff. Policemen should be relieved, wherever possible, of duties which are not essentially police work. The formalities of registering firearms, keeping records of aliens, inspecting hotel premises, preparing road accident records—perhaps dealing with accidents themselves—and the typing of statements and reports are among the jobs that might be shed. Good policemen would then be freed to do the increasing police work expected of them.