POLICE QUARTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23203, 29 May 1937, Page 14

POLICE QUARTERS

POSITION IN DUNEDIN CONVERTED CELLS USED COLD AND DEPRESSING " The police quarters in Auckland are like a palace compared with those in Dunedin," a Daily Times reporter was told yesterday by a man who has had experience of living in both. "The greatest objection to the single constables' rooms in Dunedin is the excessive cold to which the 'men are subjected," he added, " and, apart from that, they are depressing in the extremes." There are about 18 single constables living at the Dunedin police station, and the rooms they are accommodated in are simply old cells which have been converted to a certain extent for the purpose. The small, high windows which formerly allowed a little light to filter through to the prisoners have been replaced by larger windows, but apart from that, no material alteration has been made. The onus of improving their rooms is thrown on the constables, who may paint the brick walls if they want to—most of them do—and may introduce a little badly needed comfort by installing an electric heater if they want to. By the time the bed and dressing table have been placed in the cells, however, there is not a great deal of room for anything else, for these quarters are anything but spacious. "PERSPIRING" WALLS

Even when a constable has made what improvements he can, he has still to sleep in a cell with walls two feet thick at the front and rear and anything up to eight or ten inches on the sides. With a heavy wooden door designed to withstand the wiles of prisoners separating him from the landing outside. Unless he is on the upper floor the view from his window consists mainly of a section of a brick wall. In the cold weather —and, it is said, a man can appreciate cold when sleeping between brick walls two feet thick—it is almost possible to write one's name in the " perspiration " on the walls as a result of the lack of adequate ventilation. Constables who have left tunics or other articles of clothing hanging on the walls have later found them soaked as a result of the moisture gathering on the walls, and in those conditions it is hot surprising that the incidence of influenza and colds among the policemen is fairly high. NO DRYING The single men in Dunedin are quartered on two floors of the gaol building. They are provided with adequate bathing and showering facilities, and they have the benefit of an excellent hot water service, which represents a great improvement on the conditions ruling some years ago, when any hot water that was wanted had to be carried. There is no provision for drying the constables' clothes, however, and, like those in Auckland, they have to dry their uniforms arid overcoats By hanging'them over balustrades.

The constables have their own dining room, but it is situated immediately above the kitchen, with which it is connected by a stairway, with the result that no one who is in the dining room before a meal can possibly' have any reasonable doubt as to what the menu will comprise. The aroma that floats up from the kitchen, would certainly not be tolerated iri any restaurant. In their leisure hours the constables* are well orovided for by a reasonably'comfortable reading room and a billiard room, and in this respect they are well satisfied, but it cannot be denied that their living conditions leave a great deal to be desired It is surely anomalous that the men whose duty it is to keep the law should be quartered in cells built to house those who break the law.