Rehabilitation 'Important'

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 26

Rehabilitation 'Important'

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 29. If a policeman turned a wayward youth into a “cop - hater” he defeated the very purpose of law enforcement, the Commissioner of Police (Mr G. C. Urquhart) said yesterday. He was speaking to 18 youth aid officers from throughout New Zealand at a special course at the Police Training School, Trentham. His theme was the importance of preserving channels for personal contact between police and public, and the need to cultivate new ways of giving personal service. “If criminal behaviour is

to be controlled, the emphasis must be on prevention of crime and the reformation and rehabilitation of the offender,” Mr Urquhart said. “This is never more important than in dealing with young offenders coming to notice for the first time. And there nothing is more important than the impression the offender forms of the police,” Mr Urquhart said the offender's impression of the police was likely to become his indelible impression of the whole institution of law and order.

“The police are dealing with human beings who are entitled to be recognised," he said. “They must see, from the attention they receive, that the police are concerned about them and their problems.”

Youth aid officers must be

able to look beyond a particular offence and evaluate the important factors which motivated the child’s' action. “The police have the primary responsibility for maintaining law and order in the community,” he said. “With this we have the responsibility, which we will not abdicate, of deciding whether or not offenders will be prosecuted. "This involves the exercise of discretion, which the police have traditionally held. “When dealing with young offenders we are ever conscious of the need to make decisions that make the best possible provision for the treatment and rehabilitation of the offender, and which take into account his special requirements and at the same time satisfy our obligation to protect the community.”