The policeman who ‘had a gutsful’

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 17

The policeman who ‘had a gutsful’

Never Back Down. By Gideon Tait with John Berry. Whitcoulls. 190 pp. $8.95.

(Reviewed by Graeme Dunstall)

Early in 1973, the then Prime Minister, Mr Kirk, announced that the proposed Springbok rugby tour had been called off. The Commissioner of Police had reported that his department would not be able to prevent violence if the tour went ahead. Commissioner Sharp’s opinion was not shared by all his senior officers. Gideon Tait, then District Commander at Christchurch, felt Sharp had made “a most damaging admission,” backing down in the face of “demonstrators and radicals.” Tait felt that his handling of the Weedons and Harewood demonstrations in March had shown that the police could deal with any turmoil. “Never Back Down” was his credo. And the series of episodes which comprise a selective account of his career are variations on this theme. As a young beat constable in 1937 Tait received the conventional wisdom of the old hands: “Run to a fire, walk to a fight.” But he never accepted it. “I loved to be in on a fight — not in the hope of arrests, but because it had become ingrained in my nature that nobody should be allowed to get away with disorder.”

A preoccupation with violence permeates a good deal of the book. Indeed it is made explicit in some of the chapter titles: A Smash in the Mouth, The Battle of Harewood, A Crack at the Bikies, Bloody Friday. Arid after describing one bruising tussle, he admits “in a sense I had enjoyed it.” For Tait, many non-violent duties were “far less palatable,” but there was no question of compromise. Unpopular laws were a problem for the politicians, not the police. “My job was to uphold the law as it stood.” And so wherever he was stationed (and notably in Dunedin in the late sixties) he cracked down on afterhours drinking. In this he showed greater resolve than others. So it would be wrong to see Gideon Tait as the archetypal New Zealand policeman. Certainly in his rural background and his departmental career there is much that is typical. But his uncompromising stance is not.

Discretion and tact have generally been the hallmarks of New Zealand policing. In fact Tait illustrates this nicely by including a brief chapter on the police role in the 1951 waterfront dispute. It is based on secondary sources (unacknowledged) rather than personal experience. Characteristically Tait focuses on an isolated event, a violent confrontation between Auckland police and a procession in Queen Street. Yet this disturbance was an exception. More significant was the general success of the low-key tactics adopted by the police.

After some false starts, similar tactics were again evolved to control demonstrations in the early seventies. But such tactics came to be eschewed by Tait. He was contemptuous of the “pussyfooting years from 1964 to 1973.” He “had a gutsful of the rebels and the soft treatment they had been receiving.” The attitude of the new Minister of Police, Mr Connelly, “encouraged” him to take a “firm stand.” And not just against protestors but also against bikies.

Tait claims widespread approval for his methods amongst M.P.s and the public, but Headquarters was "not loud in praise.” So it is surprising that fie was sent to Auckland early in August, 1974. Indeed there was opposition in Headquarters to the move. But politics and Tait’s relationship with Mr Connelly seem to have been important. Tait makes it clear that he did not begin the Task Force which had its origins in 1973. There was a relatively low-key “Operation Cleanstreet” in November. Then came a lull until the return of Mr Kirk to full duties in June, 1974. On Mr Kirk’s instructions (according to Tait) the Task Force became operational. Tait backed it “to the hilt.” More controversy.

Indeed Tait the author continues to pull no punches. Of other Cabinet Ministers he notes Percy Allen, for example, “was not a bad chap, but he was fairly weak.” David Thomson was “inclined to be a waffler.” Prince Philip "seemed rather petulant, ready to pick on the police and others in authority.” And where Mr Muldoon embarrassed Headquarters by trading blows with demonstrators as he left a meeting, Tait as the District Commander “admired his guts.” But it is perhaps the Commissioner, Sir Angus Sharp, who sustains the most knocks. Sharp “was a soft-liner at a time. . . when firmness was needed.”

Surfacing throughout the book is disquiet at the trend of police department policies since the early 19605. Disapproval is expressed at the change of title from Police “Force” to “Department,” at the removal of sirens from police cars, at the closure of country and suburban stations, at the discountenancing of summary justice, and above all at the developing bureaucracy. Tait’s “nightmare” is the Police Force being “represented by a man who looks like a clerk, wearing a blue uniform.” For Tait “preventing crime end catching crooks are what the police are all about.” This may be a popular view, but it ill accords with the reality of policing, either past or present. Tait shows the department not to be a monolith, but it would be a pity if outsiders looked only through his eyes. (Graeme Dunstall, who lectures history at the University of Canterbury, is at present writing a history of the police in New Zealand.)