Censure for police despite eight arrests

Press, 28 December 1988, Page 3

Censure for police despite eight arrests

PA Wellington Napier police officers who responded to a burglar alarm and caught eight intruders were censured and warned not to do it again, the Police Association says. The association president, Keith Morrow, said the incident highlighted a case of police officers being reprimanded for following their oaths of office “to protect life and property.” The officers were censured for breaching police regulations which say activated burglar alarms are to be first attended only by security firms. The police are supposed to be called in if it is confirmed by a security guard that offenders are still on the premises. The incident, involving a burglary of commercial premises last month, was reported in the latest issue of the association’s newsletter. “Instead of being congratulated for a great catch the officers concerned were castigated and the message put out that any future actions of this sort would be viewed seriously,” the newsletter said. “So now we have the ludicrous situation where police officers can be warned and possibly even charged for carrying out their duty.” In any other situation where officers did not make every effort to catch offenders it was highly likely disciplinary charges would be laid against them, the newsletter said. Mr Morrow criticised the police policy of not immediately attending intruder alarms. “It’s like seeing smoke coming from your neighbour’s place and checking it’s really a fire before calling the Fire Service,” he said. The policy was adopted last year to save time and money spent on investigating intruder alarms, 97 per cent of which were estimated to be false alarms. Mr Morrow said the policy was a pathetic attempt to save a few dollars.