Public Co-operation With Police

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 14

Public Co-operation With Police

New Zealanders were less hostile towards the police and co-operated more with the police than people in any other country he had visited, said the retiring Commissioner of Police (Mr C. L. Spencer) yesterday.

Mr Spencer said that the drug problem, organised crime, protection for criminals, restrictions on police, prostitution, and other rackets were worse in all the countries he had visited than they were in New Zealand. “That is the reason I keep referring to the need for good relations between the police and people in New Zealand,” Mr Spencer said. “By and large, hostility towards the police here is shown mainly by teen-agers. Few older people show hostility. We do not want the bad relations to develop here that exist now in other countries. We cannot allow it “But we must have more than co-operation. The police must be accepted as a part of the community, not a race apart, as they are regarded in some countries.

“I believe that the vast majority of New Zealanders want drug peddlers to be caught, want perpetrators of crimes of violence caught, want theieves and burglers apprehended. “But the police must be accepted. It is surprising and disappointing to find a number of respectable business persons and others well known in the community, who are suspicious of the police. “This thin barrier of suspicion must be broken down. The alternative is more crime and more social sorrow. I believe it will be broken down by the programme of public relations laid down now. But the police and the people must both work to remove the barrier so that acceptance is complete."