i

on e

ti

NE

D

pol

c

ZEAL A N

W

associa

Volume 37, Number 10, November 2004

Memories...

• Former Home Guardsman, Henry Growcott, who helped capture West Coast gunman Stanley Graham in 1941, sits in front of the memorial at Kowhitirangi, which he unveiled. (Photo courtesy of Peter Bush).

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

CONTENTS ■

Industrial news

Remand prisoner proposal ‘stonewalled’ ....................................................... 196

■

General news

Large crowd attends remembrance service ................................................... 198 PSS scoops top two awards........................................................................... 201

197 7 TONNES OF MEMORIES

■

Features

Remembering the Kowhitirangi incident .................................................... 197/8 Barry Matthews reflects on WA Commissioner’s role .............................. 199/200

■

Special Feature

The NZ Police Association’s 69th Annual Conference ............................. 205/214

■

198 LEST WE FORGET

Columns

From the President ....................................................................................... 195 Keen on Wine ............................................................................................... 202 Health Watch ................................................................................................ 203 View from the Bottom .................................................................................. 201 Six percent or 12% - what are the risks? (Spicers) ......................................... 204 On The Hill ................................................................................................... 214 Letters to the Editor ................................................................................... 217/9

■

Sport/Entertainment

Copper’s crossword ...................................................................................... 202 Sports News .............................................................................................. 215/6

■

Welfare/Notices

Police Health Plan growing strongly .............................................................. 195 Memorial Wall .............................................................................................. 202 Holiday home availablility chart .................................................................... 203

Useful Information & Contacts

212 LLOYD’S TOIL NZ Police Association Police News is the newsletter of the New Zealand Police Association and incorporates the New Zealand Police Journal first published in 1937. Editor: Steve Plowman November 2004, Vol. 37, No.10 ISSN 1175-9445 Deadline for next issue Friday November 17, 2004. Published by the New Zealand Police Association P.O. Box 12344, Willbank House, 57 Willis Street, Wgtn. Phone: (04) 496 6800, Facsmile: (04) 471 1309 Email: [email protected] Website: www.policeassn.org.nz Printed by City Print Communications, Wgtn. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Association. COPYRIGHT: NZPA Police News must not be reproduced in part or as a whole without the formal consent of the copyright holder - the New Zealand Police Association.

194

Association and Police Welfare Fund: Police Network 44446 Freephone 0800 500 122 Police Health Plan/Staffpac Insurance Quotes & information 0800 500 122 or Fax (04) 496 6819 Staffpac claims 0800 110 088 All enquiries (04) 496 6800

Website www.policeassn.org.nz Police Home Loans 0800 800 808 Police Credit Union 0800 429 000 or (04) 472 9645 Credit Union www.policecu.org.nz GSF information 0800 654 731 PSS information 0800 777 243

Vice Presidents Geoff Smith Richard Middleton

(027) 268 9417 (027) 268 9411

Field Officers Northland and Auckland Districts: Waikato, BOP and Eastern Districts: Central and Wellington Districts: Tasman, Canterbury and Southern Districts:

Stewart Mills Eric Newman JJ Taylor Dave McKirdy

(027) 268 9407 (027) 268 9408 (027) 268 9409 (027) 268 9410

Whangaparoa Papatoetoe Tauranga Napier Office of Com Sumner North Dunedin

(027) 268 9419 (027) 268 9413 (027) 268 9414 (027) 268 9415 (027) 268 9416 (027) 268 9412 (027) 268 9418

Regional Directors Region One Region Two Region Three Region Four Region Five Region Six Region Seven

Steve Hawkins Mark Leys Mel Ridley Chris Cahill Stuart Mills Craig Prior Dave Steel

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

From the President “Any police officer who has been in a situation where control was lost, as it was in this case, will know exactly what they felt as the offender started calling the shots.” I’ve spent time with police officers from many different cultures and many different countries. Whether siting in a muster room in a station in wealthy, well-equipped Denmark or impoverished Honiara, a natural and instant camaraderie exists, which transcends language barriers and borders. It’s because we all deal with the same section of our respective societies, those who don’t abide by the laws imposed to ensure that society can function for the greater good of the majority. Last month, I was fortunate enough to be in Kowhitirangi, near Hokitika,

where a monument was unveiled, commemorating the four police officers and three others who were killed by Stanley Graham during his 1941 rampage there. I travelled to the site with other officers over the same route the slain officers took - we discussed how they would have travelled, what they would have been thinking. The empathy we all quickly developed with the officers made me realise our camaraderie not only transcends cultures, it transcends generations. Those were our colleagues, doing the same job as we do today and who would have had exactly the same fear and anticipation as we would.

They would have cracked jokes to reassure each other. Any police officer who has been in a situation where control was lost, as it was in this case, will know exactly what they felt as the offender started calling the shots. It is the conflict between selfpreservation, duty and looking after your mates and the public. The construction of the monument inspired by Grant “Cab” O’Fee and made real by retired Constable Barry Thompson has come to fruition and its presence is a reminder to us all of the ultimate sacrifice that those four courageous officers gave to protect their community. Others have made the same sacrifice in the 63 years since the Kowhitirangi tragedy. No doubt other colleagues will pay the ultimate sacrifice in the future in the course of going about their lawful duty in order to ensure that New Zealand is a safer place.

Police Health Plan growing strongly and providing the best of care By Chris Pentecost, Police Health Plan CEO Police Health Plan remains one of the leading players in the New Zealand health insurance industry. With almost 28,000 lives covered, it enjoys membership growth twice that of the general health insurance business in New Zealand. In the last financial year (to 30 June 2004) we met over 23,000 claims, paying more than $14.4m to members. Already this financial year, we have paid out over $4.5m in claim costs. Despite public health funding increases, unless an individual has an “acute” condition, requiring immediate treatment, they will generally face a wait of several months for treatment. For many procedures considered nonurgent, the public health system waiting list can extend to years. Therefore, health insurance is a necessity to ensure access to faster treatment for ailments, especially for more serious conditions. Since 2000 Police Health Plan has approved 11,455 procedures, including: • 258 major heart operations.

• 193 hip or knee replacements. • 271 instances of nasal surgery. • 63 (non ACC) spinal injuries. • 332 ACC shortfalls for major procedures. • 1,603 colonoscopies or gastroscopies. • 353 surgical procedures for varicose veins. We have also met numerous procedures for children, including: • 246 tonsil operations. • 249 tonsil and adenoid procedures. • 49 adenoid procedures alone. • 457 instances of grommets. These procedures are not ‘cosmetic’ but necessary. Having these operations has prolonged lives, enabled an earlier return to work and/or significantly improved members’ quality of life.

Best value The Association believes that Police Health Plan currently provides the best value long term health insurance

available. As we only have three types of plan, no add-ons or ‘no claim bonuses’, our processes are not complicated, meaning our administration costs are the lowest in the business. Our staff pride themselves on customer service. For the past two years, Police Health Plan has been placed first in consumer surveys as providing the best service to its members. Claims are paid out every week, generally on a Wednesday. If a claim is received by noon on a Tuesday it should be processed and paid by the next day. The reality is that in the modern era health insurance, as provided by Police Health Plan, has become as necessary as every other form of insurance. Children of primary members and their own children, including adult children, are eligible to join. For all enquiries call the Member Service Centre on the Police network 44446, freephone 0800 500 122 or 04 496 6800.

195

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Remand prisoners proposal stonewalled by Police By Amanda Craig, Association Industrial Officer The Association’s main aim throughout the remand prisoner situation has been to get remand prisoners out of Police and court cells. We have put significant effort into this goal. Health and safety concerns were foremost in the Association’s approach to the sustained use of Police cells to house remand prisoners. Those concerns were: • The additional demands on watch house staff. • Inadequate training of the contractors brought in to assist Police staff. • Deployment of frontline staff away from their normal duties to supervise remands.

proposed an hourly allowance of $27.65 for those who came back for such work. We also emphasised that this proposal was solely to deal with the remand prisoner crisis, so it should have a set timeframe and it did not create a precedent. In our view, this proposal would have meant that sworn members, who already had the necessary training in prisoner management (e.g. custodial suicide prevention) and Police cell procedures, would be supervising remand prisoners. This would have eliminated the need for inadequately trained contractors and the deployment of staff away from their usual duties and reduced the load on watch house staff.

as a health and safety issue before, the Association finds it difficult to understand why our proposal raises health and safety issues in this instance. Police Department logic would also mean that they should not be using the many temporary jailers, who are working for Police in secondary employment. The same health and safety risks apply to these staff, yet Police are happy to engage them to supervise remand prisoners.

We put forward this proposal when it became apparent that remand prisoners would not be leaving Police and court cells in the near future.

Police have also stated that they cannot engage their own staff on their leave days. The Association does not see any legal impediment to this arrangement, given the restriction about the number of days worked in the proposal.

Police response

Future proposal

The Memorandum of Understanding between Police and Corrections provides for the “periodic” not sustained use of Police cells to house remand prisoners.

Police firstly stonewalled the Association and then, when we insisted on a response, were intransigent in their rejection of our proposal.

Due to Police’s intransigence, the Association considered what other options could be pursued on behalf of members.

We considered that it was unacceptable for our members to be exposed to the hazards arising out of the above health and safety concerns. For example, remand prisoners again recently blocked the toilets in the Manukau District Court cells meaning that raw sewerage was flowing though the corridors.

We understand that Police had concerns about members working on their days off and those concerns related to perceived health and safety risks. The Association accepts that the uncontrolled use of members to supervise remand prisoners could be a risk. For this very reason, our proposal contained restrictions on the number of days members could volunteer for this work and the proposal was for a defined period of time.

• The general inadequacy of Police and court cells for holding remand prisoners. Last month, the Association raised these concerns again with the Police Commissioner.

Association proposal Last month, the Association put forward a proposal to Police to assist in immediately minimising the health and safety risks to our members and Police as an organisation. The Association’s proposal was that sworn members of Police could voluntarily work on their rostered days off or on various leave days to supervise remand prisoners. We

We also advised the Commissioner that his reasoning in this instance did not preclude Police from calling members back to work from days off on a regular basis. We noted that when this occurs, members often do not get an alternative day off. Given that Police have never identified such call backs

We firstly advised the Commissioner that rejection of our proposal meant that we would be left with an option to pursue other health and safety action (e.g. hazard notices). At the time of writing, we are also putting forward another proposal to Police, which would provide for recognition of those members who have been affected by the remand prisoner overflow. This proposal is secondary to and not a replacement for the earlier proposal. While the second proposal recognises the additional stress on staff, it does not alleviate any of our health and safety concerns. Ultimately though, the Association would not like to see any remand prisoners in Police or court cells, and we are still working towards this goal.

Association position on DNA Elimination database The Police Department has proposed an elimination DNA database to hold profiles of SOCO’s (Scene of Crime Officers) to ensure that contaminated profiles aren’t kept on the assumption that they relate to an offender. This database would be operated by ESR but exist outside the legislative criteria set out in the DNA legislation.

about this proposal. After listening to this proposal and receiving information from Australian Police Union representatives about their experiences in this area delegates passed the following motion.

At the New Zealand Police Association Conference delegates received a presentation from Inspector John Walker (National Forensic Advisor)

Conference instructs the Association National Office to continue to work to ensure the proposed DNA Elimination Database is voluntary and that strict

196

“That conference recommends that members do not offer samples to the DNA Elimination Database until strict protocols over the use of the database are finalised.

protocols and/or legislation on the use of the database are established.” The advice of the Police Association to it’s members is that NO SAMPLES SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR THE ELIMINATION DATABASE UNTIL THE PROTOCOLS SURROUNDING ITS OPERATION AND USE ARE IN PLACE. This does not prevent elimination samples being provided by staff for individual cases as and when required to ensure that ongoing investigations are not impeded.

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

63 years on...

Police honour their fallen comrades from the ‘Kowhitirangi incident’ By Gerry Morris When the Kowhitirangi Valley (formerly known as Koiterangi), near Hokitika, finally got back to work in the late afternoon sun on Friday, 8 October, following a moving dedication ceremony commemorating the mass murder of seven men - four police officers, two Home Guardsmen and an Education Department inspector between 8 and 20 October 1941, it was as if the lack of a mention of the villain in proceedings, Stanley Graham, had triggered a last word. As people left, an eerie shuddering blast engulfed the valley from the nearby Mt Doughboy quarry, less than a kilometre from where Graham was shot and captured by police after 12 days on the run in 1941. The memorial project was the brainchild of Tasman District Police Commander, Superintendent Grant O’Fee. Ex-police officer and now artist, Barry Thompson, crafted the stunning seven tonne granite

and bronze memorial. The NZ Police Association helped with most of the funding.

One of the last surviving members of the huge group of Police, Army and Home Guard who were involved in the hunt for Graham, local farmer Henry Growcott, unveiled the memorial.

Big turnout

Captured the mood

More than 100 relatives of the slain men and 50 police officers were among the 300 who attended. • Constable Percy

Greg O’Connor seemed to capture the mood of the occasion, which also recognised the killing of 26 serving police officers including the four at Kowhitirangi, by asking for the incident to be known in future as the Kowhitirangi incident rather than in the name of Graham.

Tulloch...one of four

VIP guests police officers killed. included the Photo courtesy of the Minister of Police, NZ Herald George Hawkins, Acting Commissioner of Police, Steve Long, local MP Damien O’Connor, his cousin, Police Association President and former West Coaster, Greg O’Connor, and prominent Wellingtonian and former head of the Armed Offenders’ Squad, Bill Brien, himself a relative by marriage to victim, Constable Ted Best.

“These types of incidents start as everyday events and sadly, they continue in our society - every police officer has a time bomb in their patch like this and these seven men gave their lives to look after their mates,” O’Connor said. “It is wonderful to get some form of closure on this infamous incident, however, it is in the nature of humanity that it will someday be repeated.”

• Relatives of Constable Edward (Ted) Best - Senior Constable Ross Campbell, Peter Campbell. Adrienne Campbell, Leith Oliver and Bruce Oliver - in front of the memorial. (Photo courtesy of The NZ Herald). 197

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

President draws important link between today’s police and those of a bygone era at unveiling of memorial In his address at the unveiling of the Kowhitirangi memorial Association President, Greg O’Connor, alluded to “growing up as a West Coaster where the story of Stanley Graham’s slaying of seven men loomed large” but said that it was not until he became a police officer that he began to look at the shootings from a different perspective - that of the victims. Mr O’Connor touched on the courage of those involved in the search who lost their lives - police officers William Cooper, Fred Jordan, Percy Tulloch and Edward Best, local school inspector George Ridley and Home Guardsmen, Gregory Hutchison and Richard Coulson, saying that they were people “who did their duty...with tragic results”.

Protection “These men lost their lives protecting their community and for the police officers involved it was at a time when there was nothing like the support for their families that we have in place now, through the Police Association and Police Welfare Fund,” he said. “Their courage and

sacrifice protecting their community will be forever remembered.”

memorial marked “the significance of their sacrifice”.

Fitting contribution

Mr O’Connor also paid tribute to the significant amount of work put in by Tasman District Commander, Superintendent Grant O’Fee, to make the memorial come to fruition and said that he hoped Police “would never need another memorial such as this” but then added “given the nature of humanity, however, that may not be the reality”.

Mr O’Connor said it was fitting that the Police Association should help with the funding of the newlycommemorated memorial, given that it was the Association’s job to “look after the interests of individual police as they go about their day-to-day policing activities.” “It is appropriate then that our contribution to this memorial comes from those who are policing in 2004, some 63 years on,” he said. The Association President said that most of the police officers who had been murdered in New Zealand have been dealing with what began as “everyday policing events” and that fellow police officers were “well aware that such events can happen at any time”. He said that the bond and camaraderie of policing transcended cultures, borders and generations and the dead were “our colleagues doing what we do, making New Zealand a safer place”. The

Lighter moment In one of the lighter moments of a rather sombre and thoughtprovoking day, the first two speakers made reference to the presence of Greg O’Connor’s cousin, local Labour MP, Damien O’Connor, who also spoke at the unveiling. As the third speaker of the morning Greg O’Connor told the audience: “Gee, I keep telling people Damien and I aren’t related and then the first two speakers get up and refer to him as my cousin.” - Steve Plowman (Editor).

Large crowd attends remembrance service The annual New Zealand Police Remembrance Service was held at The Royal New Zealand Police College on Wednesday 29 September. Services were also held in Australia and the South Pacific, each to honour and remember staff who have been slain or died on duty and all staff who have died in the past year.

the names of 23 NZ police officers and three traffic officers slain on duty since the NZ Police was first formed in 1886. Seven serving New Zealand Police staff died during this year. The only officer to be killed whilst on duty was Senior Constable Phillip (Piripi) Wipatene, 55, who was killed when his highway patrol car collided with another car on Oakura bridge, near New Plymouth, on 15 July.

A large crowd • The late Senior Constable Phillip Wipatene’s family (from left to right); Kelly attended the service (daughter) holding Kieran (grandson, 3), Mark (brother), Merridee (wife) holding Ella in the college hall. (niece, 2) and Karl (brother). (Photos courtesy of Barry Durrant). Padre David Dell, the chaplain of the Forty former or retired New Zealand Police staff were also Royal NZ Police College, officiated. Deputy Commissioner, remembered. Steve Long, laid the wreath at the memorial wall, which bears 198

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

“I found it very helpful as it’s very easy for a Commissioner to be cut off from what’s happening in the frontline...on some occasions I was able to intervene and I saw it as a good opportunity to keep my finger on the pulse.” - Barry Matthews on the result of allowing frontline officers to email him.

Barry Matthews returns home with few regrets after five years as WA Police Commissioner By Steve Plowman, Editor, Police News Barry Matthews, a former Deputy Commissioner of NZ Police, has just finished a five-year stint as the Commissioner of Police for West Australia. He is back home, having endured a wet NZ winter -”they’re a bit shorter in Western Australia”, he says, as he muses about the possibility of buying a boat “and doing a bit of sailing in the Marlborough Sounds.” Barry and wife Barbara are also planning a European holiday and some more sailing. “I’d like to go sailing on the Aegean Sea,” he says of holiday plans, which are presently taking shape. His West Australian experience was “immensely” enjoyable. And, since Matthews is one who chooses his words carefully and answers questions in a measured, thoughtful manner, you know ‘immense’ is the right word here.

Vast area of responsibility In the top job, Matthews was responsible for overseeing an area covering 2.5 million square kilometres. Think big. Think very big. Think 9.6 times bigger than New Zealand. Think several hours flying; just to get to its farthest ‘bush’ policing outposts. To get an idea of the scale of the former Commissioner’s area of command - his farewell visits to the North Eastern districts of Goldfields, Kimberley and Pilbara took eight days and covered 11,500 kilometres by aircraft. It is 35,500 kilometres by road. Matthews was appointed in June 1999, having been plucked from the position of Deputy Commissioner of Operations in New Zealand. He replaced Victorian, Bob Falconer, who had been Commissioner for five years - the normal tenure for WA Commissioners. Landing the job was, he says, “the epitome” of his 34-year New Zealandbased policing career. When he first arrived in Perth, he had “some degree of knowledge about the West Australian

Police” - but freely admits that after a short while “some things I thought were going to be easier turned out to be harder and vice versa”.

measured individual. He speaks with a degree of authority and experience that you often only find in those who have been around the job a fair while.

Differences

No doubt it is that experience and measured capacity that attracted the West Australians to appoint an ‘outsider’ over one of their own and therein lies another story. So how did the locals react to this Kiwi ‘interloper’ effectively now running their patch?

Some say policing is policing, wherever you go, but there were a few subtle differences for the new Commissioner to take in. “They haven’t moved quite to the private sector model to the same extent as New Zealand. But, nonetheless, they still have that structured command, even to the point that they have the rank of Commander,” Matthews told Police News. This strong sense of structured discipline, protocol and formality was brought home to Matthews on his first day in the new job. He went down to the cafeteria for lunch and as soon as he walked in through the door, everyone stood up. After he’d finished his meal and was leaving they did the same. He was, he admits, quite taken aback. “It was a rather unusual situation, so I made it clear that I didn’t have that expectation of people,” he says. One of the other changes he made was to give frontline police accessibility to him via e-mail. There was concern amongst others within the Police hierarchy, however, that this might open the floodgates with emails from officers all over WA. “But the reality was that it didn’t happen, nor did I expect it would,” he says. West Australian Police regulations forbid police officers making direct contact with the Commissioner without the authority of line managers. Matthews merely sidestepped this by giving general approval for officers to contact him.

Connection with frontline He says the new initiative worked well. “I found it very helpful as it’s very easy for a Commissioner to be cut off from what’s happening in the frontline...on some occasions I was able to intervene and I saw it as a good opportunity to keep my finger on the pulse.” Matthews comes across as a very

Matthews again. “I think, initially, there was quite a bit of disappointment because there was an expectation that a local would get the job...so there was a natural tendency for them to want a West Australian but in the end I found that initial resistance dissipated very quickly, within a matter of days.”

Professionalism Here Matthews pauses to pay special tribute to one of his deputies, Bruce Brennan, who many would have regarded as the natural successor to Falconer. “Bruce showed great character in that he put aside his disappointment and was very supportive of me the whole time I was there,” Matthews says. The former Commissioner told Police News that he thought Brennan would have made a fine successor, were it not for Brennan electing to retire at the end of last year. Matthews feels that there is “about an 85% fit” between New Zealand and Australian policing. The obvious difference is that Australian police are armed while their Kiwi counterparts are not. But, even in that regard, Matthews says there are more similarities than one might think at first glance. “You quickly get used to that [armed police] and, in fact, a lot of police in Western Australia don’t carry firearms, particularly the country cops,” Matthews says.

State-federal crossover The biggest difference is the interrelationship between Commonwealth and Federal organisations and the “state arrangement”, as Matthews puts it. In 199

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Australia, the state territory police effectively report to a state territory Parliament and there is a lot of involvement within the national or federal agencies (such as the Australian Crime Commission and the National Commonwealth Policing Service). This was not entirely new ground for Matthews, as he had some involvement with this process as a liaison officer for the National Police Research Unit in New Zealand. One of the real learning curves he says, from the perspective of an outsider, who found himself thrust into this melee of politics, was “the difficulties around the conflict between federal and state [jurisdictions].” Matthews says New Zealand is lucky to have only one jurisdiction. In terms of the impacts this state-federal crossover had on his position, Matthews says he effectively found himself “working for two bosses”. He says this presented its own challenges, in terms of meeting federal expectations - in which federal bodies report through to the Attorney General or the Minister of Justice or the federacy on the one hand - and then within the state setting having to report to the Minister of Police and to the Premier, on the other. This political climate became “very apparent” when you had a Liberal/ National Government holding the Federal benches while in the territories and states Labor held sway. “So you get a bit of an ideological conflict between politicians,” Matthews told Police News.

Rural similarities He found great similarities between WA and New Zealand rural policing. “There was good community support for the local police out in the country and officers were highly regarded within their communities,” he told Police News. One striking difference between the two jurisdictions in terms of rural policing is that in WA, particularly in the North East, officers wear khaki uniforms. This is because the red dirt plays havoc with the navy blue wool of the standard issue uniform and the more durable khakicoloured material is easier to clean. One of the greatest challenges he faced was the Royal Commission into Police Corruption. He says, personally, he found it tough but is the first to acknowledge that it was “tough on everyone in the organisation”. “You have a constant range of allegations and many of them were very serious. But while that only really involved about one

200

or two percent of police currently in the service at the time of the Royal Commission hearings, many people were affected and of course, police strongly identify with the image of the organisation and that image certainly took a hammering because of the actions of a very small number of people and most of those were people who had long since left the Police anyway,” Matthews told Police News. Matthews was concerned, during the Commission’s hearings, at the lack of crossexamination of those making allegations. He felt that this was “very damaging”.

Getting on with the job He says he concentrated on keeping officers focussed on their core role during

corruption, then obviously their opinion of the Police will have improved. There would also have been some people who thought there wasn’t any corruption in the Police and, of course, that proved not to be the case, so their opinion would have dropped,” he says, adding that he thought: “That it all balanced out, basically”. One of the most pleasing aspects of the job was the acceptance he found among his police colleagues and the public of West Australia. “I went there with some strategic goals in mind and I think I achieved those. I also wanted to improve the lot of women in the Police and the relationship between aboriginal people and the Police and I think there is unanimous agreement that both of those areas have improved markedly,” he says.

Political difficulties One of the less satisfying aspects of the job was the relationship he had with successive Police Ministers. “I had a very good relationship with Kevin Prince, who was the Police Minister when I first took the job, but that changed with the change of government,” Matthews says quite frankly. “The relationship with the new Minister [Michelle Roberts] was difficult,” Matthews admits. “I think I could have achieved a lot more but for the difficult relationship... there was conflict about the willingness to interfere in the running of the Police through micro-management,” he adds. Matthews is philosophical though, saying that, overall, the job afforded him “a great experience”. “We saw a lot of Western Australia, we were well• Former WA Commissioner of Police, Barry Matthews. treated, we met some lovely people (Photo courtesy of the WA Police Association) and made some wonderful friends and it was an enriching experience,” he says. the Commission while at the same time providing transparency. “We allowed While Matthews was challenged on complete access to Royal Commission numerous occasions by the police union, hearing transcripts and we produced daily sometimes through industrial courts, he summaries on the Police intranet. While says he feels there was a good degree of some will no doubt have taken an interest mutual respect involved in the relationship. in that, I have to say that my over-riding “I enjoyed working with the union and I impression was that, generally-speaking, have a lot of respect for them.” officers just got on with the job they had to As for the future, Matthews is taking some do,” he says. time out in Europe to think about his Recent surveys have indicated that public options. “I don’t think I’ll completely retire... perception and confidence in the Police in when I come back from our holiday I’ll look West Australia has not changed since the for something then,” he says. Royal Commission. Matthews has his own But for now, there are some itineraries to ideas around that: “I think the reason is check, there is some packing to be done that there had been a lot of publicity about and some boat catalogues to be perused. corruption prior to the Royal Commission, For, after 39 years of policing, Barry so I think that where corruption was, in fact, Matthews, retired Police Commissioner, established, people said: ‘Oh well, we know certainly deserves to put his feet up for a that already’. Where it wasn’t established, while before taking on his next challenge. and they thought there might have been

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association This column is written by a frontline police officer. It does not represent the views or policies of the Police Association.

View From The Bottom By Constable Iam Keen

A full moon I’m a big believer in the full moon theory... all those mad nightshifts over the years have really confirmed my thoughts and as a youngster (and still now) I always loved trudging around in the darkness waiting to spring the next bad/mad guy. Mind you, even our Senior seems to get a bit strange with the full moon, so I suppose the sword is double-edged! I feel like it’s a bit of a full moon environment at the mo with a few strange goings on. I mean Banksy going in what can only be called an avalanche, our worst criminals trying to get pay outs and police shootings not getting the normal media hype of days gone past (though I’m not complaining about that one I tells ya). Still, she’s sure a strange weather pattern. Santa’s not far off loading the sled and heading this way and another year will be gone. I wonder whether he’ll have to have a gold graded licence to drive that flash vehicle of his? Bit of debate about this one in the old Letters column and I can’t really see how we can compare

using a firearm with driving the blue and red. Sure, they might be both lethal in the wrong hands, but its apples and pears stuff, as the amount of time we spend on the road is enormous compared to the time we are armed. It’s all a bit daft really.

Generation X I’d hate to be a boy in blue across the ditch with the X factor card being played and the suggestion of testing across the board before you join the ranks. Our cousins are certainly taking the ‘corruption’ call to a new level and ‘cleanliness’ really is next to ‘Godliness’. I suppose it helps us living in God’s own and though we can’t rest on the laurels we sure don’t need to jerk the knee just yet. Mind you, that Internet has a lot to answer for and it’s scary when the odd sick puppy gets caught in the net, though throw the buggers to the sharks, I say, as kiddy stuff is a ‘do not pass GO, do not collect $200’ at any level.

PSS scoops two top awards The Police Superannuation Fund (PSS) has turned up trumps by capturing the two top awards at the Association of Superannuation Funds of New Zealand (ASFONZ) conference in Auckland recently. The scheme won the gold award for large schemes for its 2003 annual report and benefit statements and the platinum award for excellence and innovation in overall communication. The latter award is judged on printed material, which introduced investment choices and the PSS website to members.

user-friendly format. The combination of targeted printed material and the premium website met all our objectives,” he said.

Contribution acknowledged Auckland youth aid officer, Rohan Stace, provided a sprinkling of cartoons through the annual report to highlight different facets of the scheme. Mr Fleming said the cartoons provided a “lighter visual depiction” of various aspects of the scheme for members and

NZ Police Association Industrial Advocate, Greg Fleming, who is one of the trustees of the scheme, told Police News he was “delighted with the award”. “When member investment choice was introduced, we realised that the key to success was giving members all the information they needed in a

• Cartoonist Rohan Stace made a big contribution.

Extra $$$$$$ Might be able to keep me lady of the house a bit happier if we can earn a few extra coins up till Christmas by doing a few extra shifts in the watch house. Our mates at the prisons are really pushing the proverbial up hill with all those extras that the thin blue line keeps catching. I guess it shows the stats must be right with so many more in the clink - Yeah right! Wouldn’t it be great if we regularly got paid for a bit of overtime? A fella can dream can’t he? Mind you, more chance of getting me two front teeth again for Christmas than that ever happening. I think Supertramp summed that one up best (You’re nothing but a dreamer!).

Summer break Me leave plan says I’m down for a couple of weeks just before these summer holidays, so let’s hope the sun doesn’t disappoint and arrives early! The Log of Wood is where it belongs and I can’t wait until the All Blacks go on tour. In between the overtime and fence mending there’s sure gonna be some surfing (channel) done. See ya!

he acknowledged Mr Stace’s “significant contribution” in making the award winning report a success. Mr Stace said he was pleased at the success of the publication and the insight used by Greg Fleming to use cartoons to illustrate points. “Greg had a pretty clear vision that this was the way to go right from the start and he pushed it through to produce a very satisfactory result. It was a real team effort from everyone involved,” he said. The PSS, which was established in 1992 as a joint NZ Police/NZ Police Association initiative, now has over 6600 members. All members have around-the-clock, PIN-protected online access to a website where they can check their personal benefit details, read the latest superannuation and scheme-specific news and access scheme documentation and member education material. These education materials include specially developed web tools that allow members to trial different asset allocations before they make or change a selection. 201

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

by Ricky Collins

of vintages as a value for money Chardonnay. Notes of luscious mixed fruit on the nose are backed up by vibrant citrus fruit flavours on the palate, good length and smart use of oak. Well worth a try.

A look at Chardonnay

2003 Lake Chalice Marlborough Chardonnay RRP $20

Keen On Wine New Zealand is recognised as a cool climate wine-producing region. Because of our marginal climate, some varieties do better than others in our various wine regions. For example, medium to full bodied red wines such as Merlot and Syrah are better suited to the warmer moderate climate of Hawke’s Bay, whereas the cooler Marlborough region is better suited to producing acidic aromatic whites such as Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. The one variety that all of our regions are capable of producing high quality wines from, is Chardonnay. It is the second most widely planted grape variety in New Zealand. However, that universal ability to do well in a variety of climates is now resulting in a decline in new plantings. Many new wine producers are shying away from planting Chardonnay because the competition, both internally and from our neighbour Australia, is too heated. The good news though, is that there are plenty of examples of top quality New Zealand Chardonnay on the market at present at $20 or below. Below are a few that I’ve enjoyed recently. 2003 Mount Riley Chardonnay

RRP $18

This wine has gained a solid reputation over the last couple

Memorial Wall

Our sympathies to all our members’ families for those who have passed away in recent months...

We remember…

I tried this wine at a recent tasting of Lake Chalice wines and was impressed by its elegance and balance. It has a perfumed aroma of stone fruit blended in with savoury oak, and flavours of peaches and apricots. In the mouth it has a rich creamy feel, and excellent length. It is very enjoyable. 2003 Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Chardonnay

Villa Maria has again just been voted Champion Winery at the 2004 Liquorland Top 100 wine show. This is a continuation of the recognition awarded to their full range of wines. Chardonnay has always been a feature in their portfolio and this wine is a good example of how well they do with this variety. It is a little similar to the Lake Chalice, with peach flavours and a rich creamy palate. 2002 Mystery Creek Chardonnay

RRP $15

This is a small winery set up in the Waikato by a couple of ex-employees of Villa Maria. The fruit used is a blend of their home vineyard Chardonnay and fruit supplied from a well-regarded grower in the Gisborne area. This has a blend of citrus and stonefruit flavours, well worked oak and good structure. This is an impressive effort from a relatively new winery and represents excellent value for money.

Who passed away…

AMOS Audrey Elsie

25-Aug-04

Retired member

CHARLTON William David

20-Sep-04

Retired associate member

Tauranga

DALY Anthony Gerald Raphael

23-Sep-04

Retired associate member

Nelson

WRIGHT Richard

23-Sep-04

Retired non-sworn member Waitahanui

JESSON Margaret

24-Sep-04

Widow of retired member

CLARKE-RENSHAW Mary Louise

25-Sep-04

Spouse of retired member Paraparaumu

BROWN Walter Felton Alexander

7-Oct-04

Retired sworn member

Copper’s Crossword

1

2

November clues Down: Across: 1. Pensioner (6,7) 1. Close to this time of the year (6) 2. Admission (e.g.) come to 4. Always welcome to Patrol Staff (4,2) wrong conclusion (11) 8. Not real (2,4,5,) 3. A couple of these squared, 10. Count singularly (7) or just party speakers (6) 11. Hal can sing this note backwards (3) 5. Biased but accepts the laws 12. Metal teeth, but not braces (4) (6) 13. Choke with laughter perhaps (3) 6. Put a lot of thought into 14. Entry into Computer (4) crazy stuff perhaps (13) 17. Double (3) 7. The chastens lie mixed in 18. Distent broken up mouth, then goes to with moral issues (11) repairer (7) 9. Braveness (11) 19. Over the top (11) 15. Emends (6) 20. Won’t have 16 Down on this beach (6) 16. Two piece atoll perhaps (6) 21. Paper towel (6) October answers: Down: Across 2. Admit. 1. March. 17. Hammer. 14. Talisman. 3. Contract. 4. Brash. 19. Yoga. 16. Nigeria. 5. Rope. 10. Lemon. 20. Regiment. 18. Lever. 6. Stadium. 11. Replace. 23. Nurture. 21. Enter. 7. Clairvoyant. 22. Cuba. 12. Interpol. 24. Metro. 8. Crook. 13. Rill. 25. Pagan. 9. Declaration. 15. Venice. 26. Snout.

Christchurch

3

Napier Whangaparaoa

4

By Constable Cunning

202

RRP $20

5

6

7 8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 17

16

18

19

20

21

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

Police Health Plan Ltd in conjunction with our Medical Adviser, Doctor Eric Thornton, publishes articles on medical issues that affect our members.

Headaches Throughout the world, headaches are the most frequent reason for taking sick days and subsequently in enormous loss of production. They can vary from the simple “headache” to the most severe migraine headache, which can incapacitate a person for several days. Headaches can have an unknown cause or be a symptom of very serious disease such as a brain tumour. By far the most common headache is one, which has no obvious cause and is harmless in its outcome. These types usually only last a few hours and are generally eased by simple analgesics such as Panadol. Recent research has revealed the area in the brain, which causes

a headache, so a permanent cure should soon be possible.

Lowering the blood pressure results in fixing the headache.

Migraine headaches are much more severe, usually only involve one side of the head and can cause visual disturbances and vomiting. There are now a large number of treatments - tablets, injections and skin patches.

Headache due to bleeding into the brain. The pain is severe and comes on suddenly. It usually results from rupture of an artery, which has been weakened. Coma and death can occur if it is not treated - surgery is required as soon as possible, depending on where the bleeding has occurred.

The most important headaches, however, are those related to some underlying cause, which can be serious. Some of these are: Headache after head trauma. This is very common and is usually a sign of brain damage. The blow to the head may be minor but the headaches can go on for years. There is no known “cure” but most eventually resolve after time. Headache caused by eyesight problems. This usually comes on late in the day and is above the eyes. Resolves after a night’s sleep. An eyesight check will reveal the problem to be corrected. The most important factor is the possible presence of glaucoma as it can lead to sudden permanent loss of vision. Headache due to high blood pressure. This is usually a dull ache in the back of the head. It can become severe if blood pressure is very high.

Headache due to brain tumour. The pain can be very variable and not easily spotted as being dangerous. The tumour is picked up by various tests such as an MRI scan and treatment is surgical if feasible. Any form of recurring headaches should be investigated fully, requiring a visit to the doctor and a variety of tests. Most will find no obvious cause. The last headache to consider is a “hangover”. This is believed to be caused by the brain becoming dehydrated and is cured by drinking copious amounts of water, either during the binge or soon after. There are thousands of folk-cures, each having its place in different parts of the world. Most have no logical basis, even though many do seem to work.

HOLIDAY HOME AVAILABILITY – for bookings see: www.policeassn.org.nz Paihia Stanmore Bay Auckland Whangamata Mt Maunganui Ohope Rotorua Taupo Turangi Napier Paraparaumu Greytown Wellington Nelson Hanmer Springs Christchurch Tekapo Wanaka Cromwell Queenstown Te Anau Dunedin

November 18,29,30 7-11, 14-18, 21-25, 26, 28-30 14, 28 7-8, 14, 16, 17, 22-23, 28, 29 11, 15-16, 23-25, 28, 29-30 7-11, 14-16, 18, 23-25, 29-30 10, 16, 18, 24-25, 29-30 8-10, 18-19, 28-30 9-11, 14-18, 21-22, 24-25, 28-30 17-18, 25, 29-30 7, 9-10, 14, 22-26 7-10, 16-18, 24-25, 28 23-24, 29 9-10, 13-14, 16-17 9-10, 15-16, 20 23-25, 29 8, 11, 15-16, 24, 30 8, 27-30 7, 9, 15-18, 22-23 7, 17, 23-24 7-8, 10, 11, 12, 16-18, 21-23, 28, 30 7, 14-15

December 5, 31 1-2, 5, 7-8, 9, 12, 13-16, 23, 24-26, 31 31 3-4, 5, 13-19, 24-26 1, 18-26 1, 6-9, 16, 23 1-2, 5-9, 13-16, 19, 30-31 1-2, 5-9, 11, 13-14, 19, 23 1-6, 8-9, 13-17, 19-23, 23-25 1-2, 6-9, 13, 18-19, 21 13, 18-19, 21 1-3, 7-10, 15-16, 19-20 16-17, 26 1-2, 14-15, 24-26 5, 9, 12, 16, 24 13, 15 3, 20 5, 8-9 5, 9, 21-22 12 2

January

31 22-30, 30-31 24 2, 24-31

30-31 30-31 28, 31 17-21, 28-29, 31 31 30-31 31 31 30-31 31

203

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Six percent or 12% - what are the risks? What’s more important - the return on your money, or the return of your money? Unfortunately, this question isn’t asked by enough New Zealanders when making investment decisions. If you ask the 5,000 New Zealanders who invested in Equiticorp debentures in the 1980s how they feel about the return of their money, the answer probably won’t be positive. In 1989, the publicly listed company collapsed owing $3.5 billion. Fifteen years after the collapse, money is still trickling in for debenture holders who received 80 cents in the dollar from the money they originally invested. In 1988, 90-day bank bills were sitting at around 16% per annum interest, and 10-year New Zealand Government Bonds were at 13%. At the time, Equiticorp were paying 2-3% more than Government Bonds. Given the choice of 13% with the government or 16% with Equiticorp, many people chose the latter without understanding the risks. Currently, New Zealand Government Bonds are paying just over 6%, yet newspapers are full of finance companies offering debentures at between 8% and 12% per annum. A recent report from Wellington-based McDouall Stuart Securities, showed that there are around 180 finance companies in New Zealand - the 10 largest of which have around 80 percent of the $10 billion in finance company assets.

Weighing up the options The following are some of the risks you need to consider when comparing investments: • Is an increase in ‘related party’ transactions is apparent, whereby loans are made to business acquaintances, family, friends and other parties? These transactions are not always at ‘arms length’ and may not be on truly commercial terms. For example, one major finance company currently has 22% of loans with “related party” companies. • Diversification (spreading your risk) is not always visible across investments. Some finance companies are lending significant portions of funds to property developers and increasing risk. If 3,000 investors lend $15,000 each to a finance

204

company of which the majority is then lent to one or two developers, what happens if one of these developers gets into difficulty? • Some finance companies, however, that specialise in lending for household furnishings and appliances, for example, may have money invested with a finance company which is spread over a larger number of borrowers. Therefore, the individual amounts invested will generally be smaller, so if a few people run into financial difficulty the impact on the finance company and the investor is limited. • A ‘mismatch’ in funding can create concern. A finance company may lend money at a fixed rate to a property developer for two to three years. The same finance company may then borrow money from the public for 12 to 24 months to fund the property developer. If short-term interest rates rise the result could be damaging. It’s a bit like being a builder who has a fixed contract price to build a house, and then finds all his building and labour costs have increased to a point where he can’t build the house for the contract price.

Careful consideration needed The rate of the Government Bond is irrelevant. What matters is the actual margin between the secure Government Bonds and the finance company offering. The risks created from an extra two to three percent interest need to be understood and considered carefully. It is important to always read the investment statement or finance company accounts to check whether problem loans or doubtful debts have ever shown on the balance sheet. A recommended approach for investors is to build a portfolio with a mix of financial assets and real estate, which can ride cyclical fluctuations and smooth your overall return. Always remember the return of your money, is more important than the return on your money. To speak with a Spicers Adviser about your investment plan and financial and lifestyle objectives call the Police Financial Planning Enquiry Line on 0800 ON BEAT (0800 66 2328).

Hmmm...the faith is strong in this one Wellington’s The Dominion Post newspaper recently reported the following incident: A churchgoer wreaked his own vengeance on five men who assaulted his wife, tried to steal his car and then hit him with an axe handle. Detective Sergeant Tim Leitch said the 46-year-old Wellington man and his wife had returned to Wesley Wellington Methodist church about 10.30pm to collect a bible the man had left behind during a prayer meeting. As the man went into the church, a group of five Maori or Polynesian men walked past his car and one began fiddling with the wing mirror. His wife was sitting in the car. “She asked him to stop. He responded by opening her car door, pulling her out...and he got into the car and started driving out of the car park,” Mr Leitch said.

Car stalled The car stalled, giving the woman time to alert her husband, who ran out of the church and pulled the man from the car. There was a brief scuffle, with the churchgoer managing to evade blows from the group but landing several punches of his own, including one that put one of his attackers “on his backside”, Mr Leitch said. The ruffled group left the car park but returned minutes later, this time with an axe handle, and another scuffle broke out. Again, the victim was able to dodge punches and again, one of the attackers was knocked over. During the melee though, the man was hit over the top of his head with the wooden axe handle. “Our victim turned around, shook his head, and grabbed the axe handle off him. At that stage the five of them decided it might be wise to withdraw,” Mr Leitch said. He said the victim, a strong stocky man, suffered a bump on his head but was otherwise unhurt. A 26-year-old man from the Upper Hutt suburb of Silverstream appeared in the Wellington District Court recently in relation to the incident.

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

NZ POLICE ASSOCIATION 69TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE The New Zealand Police Association’s 69th Annual Conference was held from October 13-15. In the series of articles, which appear over the next 10 pages, Police News Editor, Steve Plowman (pictured) reports on the Conference and its issues.

President’s address:

Devolution of police role; “cannabilisation” of the frontline; targeted funding and resourcing come in for attention Police Association President, Greg O’Connor, focussed on the theme of this year’s conference - “Who will make the arrest?” when he opened the 69th Annual Conference of the NZ Police Association, which was held in Wellington between 13-15 October. Mr O’Connor said that public demand for greater security meant that work, which was once defined as police work, was now being carried out by many different agencies. He said the recent call for batons and pepper spray by Fisheries officers was a further example of this wider debate and this call was quickly taken up by the security sector.

requirements rendered police less efficient. He paid tribute to officers throughout the country, but particularly in Auckland, making reference to significant reductions in reported crime, which he said was due to the fact that for the first time in many years staff numbers were at establishment levels and secondly by the concentration

Narrower range of duties

Frontline being drained “What this inevitably means is that the staffing for the new initiative must always come from that bottomless pit of supplies - the good old frontline sections,” Mr O’Connor added. He said that this amounted to a “cannabilisation of the frontline” every time Police were given new funding for some new initiative. He said that the danger with this sort of targeted funding approach is that the accountability that comes with it “becomes an end in itself, soaking up considerable resource, which would be better employed policing our streets.”

“Terrorism has spawned a whole new set of fears and organisations like Aviation Security are also requiring more power to enable them to do the job required of them. Virtually every town in New Zealand now has some sort of voluntary community patrol with varying levels of interaction with their local police. The National Front, New Zealand’s own neo-Nazi group, are even offering to patrol suburbs of Christchurch and Wellington. Now that is some gap in the market,” O’Connor told the audience. The Parking Wardens’ Association had recently indicated that they wanted to increase their powers to prosecute offenders for a great range of offences, he said.

“a very strong advocate” for Police around the Cabinet table, despite targeted budget funding.

“More and more the decisions around law and order and policing are made by officials with a very good knowledge of accountability regimes and a very good knowledge of funding regimes but with little or no knowledge of law and order issues.” Mr O’Connor said they were the “just add water and shake experts on policing”.

• Greg O’Connor...”police operate in an increasingly bureaucratic environment”.

Mr O’Connor said police were increasingly concentrating on a narrower range of duties “being road policing and volume crime such as burglaries, car offending and the serious violent crimes including sexual offences.” The Association President said that police were operating in an “increasingly bureaucratic environment”. He cited what he termed “the ridiculous situation requiring District Commanders to report each time they incur a traffic fine” as a good example of this bureaucratic tone. Increased accountability and reporting

on a relatively narrow range of high volume crimes. But he said that those members of the public who were endeavouring to have frauds dealt with “and parents concerned at the ready availability of ‘P’, methamphetamine and other drugs on the streets of New Zealand will not be so impressed with the results this year.” Mr O’Connor said that police were “all working harder and are more focused”. He paid tribute to Minister of Police, George Hawkins, saying that he had been

Mr O’Connor hit out at proposals to centralise frontline patrol capabilities and the “abandonment of suburban policing,” an abandonment, which he said was now “spreading into many provincial areas.”

Call for more police Mr O’Connor said that Police needed 1300 additional police officers. He cited New Zealand’s policing ratio per head of population as being 1:543 against Australia’s 1:461 and said that New Zealand had the lowest police-topopulation ratio in the English-speaking world. It was ironic, he said, that at a time when real reported crime was on the decrease that the public’s fear of crime was rising. “people were not seeing police in their communities to reassure them and that 205

November 2004

lack of reassurance creates a demand that the Police are unable to fulfil and so it is being picked up by other agencies.” He said New Zealand must be very careful to avoid the fragmentation that is so evident in places like Miami. “There they have 42 police forces, all on different radio channels with different powers and jurisdictions,” Mr O’Connor said: “New Zealand needs to be very careful we don’t get the same fragmentation by siloing the activities of a large number of law enforcement type agencies.” He said one of the Association’s greatest

Police News The Voice of Police

fears is the possibility that that growth (in outside agencies doing police work) is going unchecked and without any overriding strategy simply because the Police themselves are increasingly unable to deliver in a wide range of areas.”

Redefinition Policing was being redefined around the world. “But I get very disturbed when I hear politicians and commentators in New Zealand quoting UK and American drug policies. We haven’t lost that fight... and with good resourcing and effort we

can make a real dent into the gains made by organised crime into drug supply in New Zealand,” Mr O’Connor said. He said that New Zealand needed not only to be perceived but also to actually be a safe, low crime environment because that would be a “strategic asset” to New Zealand. Allowing gaps in public demand for such safety to be filled without any well informed strategic overview will not be good for New Zealand - unless you are a crook!” he told the audience.

• From left to right: Forum panel members - Neil Sole (CPNZ), Laurie Gabites (WCC City Watch), Russell Joseph (Corporate Risk NZ), Greg O’Connor, Professor Philip Stenning (Victoria University), Stephen Stuart (Fisheries), Mark Everitt (AVSEC) and Chris Pentecost.

Privatisation of policing inevitable if policing does not “change and adapt” Policing has to face up to and adapt to major changes and major challenges or it will effectively become a ‘dinosaur’ as more and more of its core business falls into the hands of the private sector, according to Professor Philip Stenning, Director of the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University (Wellington). Professor Stenning put this view forward during a forum, which discussed the Conference theme: “Who will make the arrest?” The forum also included Mark Everitt (CEO of the Aviation Security Service), Neil Sole (Manager, Community Patrols of NZ), Stephen Stuart (Manager National Operations, Ministry of Fisheries), Laurie Gabites (City Watch, Wellington City Council) and Russell Joseph (Director, Corporate Risks New Zealand Ltd).

Devolution of core business In an enthralling discussion on the future of policing and the devolution of the core responsibilities of the Police various panel members spoke of the changing environment in which policing now finds itself. Professor Stenning said that Police were now operating in “a competitive environment” and that in the future it may well be that others could step up and provide these services better. He said Police needed to look at these possible changes in society “with an open mind”. “One of the benefits could well be the enormous potential for second careers for police officers,” he said. 206

In reference to the burgeoning private sector security industry, Professor Stenning said: “Collectively they pose a huge challenge for policing”. Professor Stenning said that he saw a “best case scenario” for Police in the future as being a possible sub-contracting role to other agencies, which would provide services which previously fell under the auspices of the Police. “More and more we are seeing the private sector devising policing policies and what’s going on in Iraq is an interesting thing, as there are far more private security people in Iraq now than there are public police officers.”

Shift away from traditional policing He said the role of traditional policing of “catching crims” was shifting towards prevention and away from “law enforcement” to “order/maintenance/ peacekeeping”. Stephen Stuart, an ex-police officer, told Conference that of 160 Fisheries staff, 130 were frontline Fisheries officers. A further 260 “honourary officers”, who monitored recreational fishing, backed them up. Mr Stuart said Fisheries officers often confronted poachers who were prone to violence, had access to weapons and had extensive criminal records. Fisheries officers have limited powers of search and arrest. They carry handcuffs and some had stab proof vests but lacked the “normal defensive equipment that would normally be available to the Police.”

Defensive capabilities Moves were now being made to address this with suggestions from some quarters that Fisheries Officers should be supplied with pepper spray and batons. Mr Stuart said that it would be helpful to officers if they could access QPs (Query Person) and QPRs (Query Person’s Record) “so as they could carry out routine checks when they confronted people in their vehicles”. He also said that flashing lights on Fisheries officers’ vehicles was another option. Fisheries was presently upgrading radio communications for field staff and instigating its own Communications Centre. Laurie Gabites, also an ex-police officer, and a manager of the Wellington City Council’s City Watch programme, said that while council workers had no powers of arrest and “no interest in taking over the role of the Police” it was interested in building a “relationship and partnership” approach that would allow both organisations to work together to build a safer community. He said significant shifts had been made in establishing a safer community programme, with the help of local police, and joint operations were now part of that intiative. Neil Sole (Manager, Community Patrols NZ) said that his organisation, which had 26 groups nationwide, are only interested in “being the eyes and ears for the Police for the duration of a shift while police officers are doing other duties”. “We do not get into confrontational situations. We operate covertly from our vehicles,” he said. CPNZ has 73 community patrols nationwide with a Police Liaison Officer attached to each one as an overseer and advisor.

Ne w Zealand Police Association

“We are not cheap replacements for police,” Mr Sole said.

Core policing being eroded Another ex-police officer (CIB), Russell Joseph (Corporate Risks NZ Ltd) referred to “a growing gap between what we do and what the Police do”. “I don’t want, in any way, to suggest that I am critical of the direction of policing at this time but certainly the gap between the investigative arena that I saw as the core of policing has definitely been eroded and has been picked up by the private sector. In many respects that concerns me,” he said. “There is a public perception that the Police are not responding to their core functions of investigating crime. We know that the profile of speed cameras is becoming uppermost in the public mind and the ability of the Police to investigate crime has declined,” he added. Corporate Risks, he said, provided services in regard to the investigation of fraud, theft within business, crime prevention, surveillance, undercover operations, Ecrime capabilities, security auditing and providing personal safety options for staff. Mr Joseph said that in many instances Corporate Risks were frustrated by such things as six-week court delays in processing vetting requests for companies for prospective employees “despite the fact that these employees were likely to be responsible for large sums of money”. He found this “unacceptable”.

Lack of powers He said Corporate Risks did not have any power to execute search warrants, which

were generally regarded as the domain of Police. “I find this (lack of search warrant power) to be obstructive...we can investigate a fraud and get it to a particular level but from then on we will require the assistance of the Police,” he said.

“There is a public perception that Police are not responding to their core functions of investigating crime” -Russell Joseph (Corporate Risks)

He said joint operations with Police were not unusual once the Police were aware that a criminal prosecution might follow on from his company’s investigations. “I suggest that you may see a widening of that in the future if the Police investigative capability continues to decline.” He gave an example of an incident where his firm had carried out all the surveillance work prior to the Police picking up the prosecution of a fraudster. Mr Joseph said that, as a private citizen, he was concerned that a time was not so far distant when the Police would be saying to people who wanted their help: “We don’t do that anymore, you’re going to have to pay someone else to do that for you.” Mark Everitt (Aviation Security Service) said that the aviation security industry had a very good working relationship with Police through the provision of specialist resources to Police “if the Commissioner asks for it”. He said the Aviation Security Service was involved in a lot of “preventative issues” where it worked with other agencies, especially since security had become a major issue since the terrorist attacks

November 2004

of 9/11. He pointed to the work of Air Marshals on planes as being an extension of that and said he felt “such work should really fall within the work of the Police.”

Professionalism reduced Association President, Greg O’Connor, said as is often the case, one of the greatest risks with Police core business increasingly falling into the hands of other agencies, was that the whole professionalism of New Zealand law and order capability will be reduced. Mr O’Connor said the Police Association was sounding a warning, just as it had in 1998 when it spoke out about a potential methamphetamine epidemic. “This time we are cautioning that failure to adequately satisfy the public’s demands for their crime to be investigated, for their streets to be safer and for efforts to reduce the amount of drugs which are now available to their kids, will result in the public looking to other organisations to take up the slack,” he said. Any resultant fragmentation will “fall into the laps of the criminal gangs who are consolidating their sphere of intimidation as New Zealand allows its response capabilities to be divided.” “If Police were once defined as the coercive arm of the state, then several other agencies now fit that definition,” Mr O’Connor said. Mr O’Connor said that the unchecked devolution of that coercive arm to the private sector meant that organised criminal gangs would welcome as wide a distribution as possible. “Divide and rule”, would be their motto, he added.

Divergent views on Collective Agreement ratification One of the most robust debates took place around the issue of the Collective Agreement ratification process. The core issue was whether the traditional process by which both sworn and non-sworn collective agreements are ratified should remain or be replaced by alternative ratification procedures such as postal or electronic voting. Association CEO, Chris Pentecost, said that the Board of Directors and National Office preferred the retention of the current “50% plus one” ratification through members attending site meetings specifically called for that purpose. Tokoroa/Taupo delegate, Allan Humphries, supported by several other delegates, spoke of the difficulties the current voting system presented to some members, especially those on night shift. “Another example is someone who may have to travel 80 kms to the nearest meeting,” Mr Humphries said. “An electronic system would provide every member with the opportunity to vote,” Mr Humphries told delegates. General discussion on low turnouts followed and Mr Pentecost said that the voting response

to electronic voting was hard to assess. “When we tried electronic voting for the Detective Constables variation earlier this year the feedback from the members affected, seemed to indicate that it was of high relevance to most members yet only 56% actually responded,” he said.

“Member apathy” Some delegates pointed out that various Australian jurisdictions had electronic voting and that returns were relatively high. Malcolm Dick (OoC) said that the low attendance at ratification meetings in New Zealand indicated a degree of member apathy and that this might be addressed by turning to electronic voting but that it had to be remembered “the Aussies are great unionists.” Discussion for those mooting a change to electronic voting, centred on security of Police email, ease of use of the Police intranet and low voter turnout at site meetings. However, those in favour of maintaining the status quo said that the electronic option presented its own fish hooks with security issues and that it would be “resource-hungry” at an already very busy National Office. After much discussion, a motion was passed by a

solid majority to maintain the status quo. The motion read: “That the existing ratification procedure to accept a proposed settlement of a collective agreement, being a majority (being 50% plus 1) of the members attending meetings specifically called for the purpose of ratifying a collective agreement (remain).” The motion was passed with a commitment by National Office to arrange as many ratification meetings as can be reasonably organised to maximise the membership the opportunity to attend ratification meetings, including meetings specifically arranged to give shift workers, and their like, opportunities to attend.” The ratification procedure for a variation to the collective agreement that affects the membership will generally be the same procedure as for a new collective agreement. However, where the variation only affects a group, or groups, of defined members only members directly affected will be entitled to vote to accept variation and the ratification procedure will be as provided for a collective agreement or such alternative procedure as determined by the Board of Directors.

207

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Minister pays tribute to “magnificent work” Minister of Police, George Hawkins, officially opened the 69th Annual Conference.

Resolution rates He said the crime resolution rate in New Zealand (45.1%) far outstripped the London Metropolitan Police resolution rate (23.5%) and that was something to be justifiably proud of.

Mr Hawkins said he wanted to “firstly acknowledge the superb efforts of the Police during the devastating floods earlier this year”.

The face of policing was changing and most notable amongst these changes were:

He said it was the fifth time he had attended the Association Conference as the second longest-serving Labour Minister of Police (Editor’s note: Peter Fraser is the only Labour Police Minister to have served longer in the job).

• Women made up 28% of total Police staff compared with 26% in June 1991. • The ethnicity profile was changing, with Police actively targeting Maori, Pacific Island and Asian recruits.

When he reflected on the half decade of Labour’s influence on New Zealand, two things stuck in his mind. “The first is how proud I am of the New Zealand Police and the second is that there has been a deliberate commitment by this government to support you to do your job by providing you with the means to do it.”

• New police stations - 11 new ones in the last five years, with two new ones to be opened shortly in Richmond and Morrinsville and a further 13 new stations currently under construction or being planned and eight more “in the pipeline.” • The Police building programme is in excess of $73 million and 48 stations had been upgraded.

Support from Government The Minister said that the Government had supported the Police through legislation, (the Parole Act, the Sentencing Act, reclassification of methamphetamine to a Class A drug, the Crimes Amendment Act and the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Act), DNA extensions, upgrading of police stations, the highest-ever police numbers, an increase of $29.2 million for the next three years to replace an ageing vehicle fleet and a $1 billion budget. “Recent crime statistics show crime rates at their lowest since 1983.” “Police are doing a magnificent job,” he told the audience.

• Minister of Police, George Hawkins, addresses Conference.

He pointed to his own electorate of Manurewa as a good example of good policing at work, paying tribute to Association Vice-President, Richard Middleton (Emergency Response Manager, Counties-Manukau) and his staff. “Results there have shown how working with the community, lateral thinking, determination and effective proactive policing can drive crime rates down. The focus has been on getting crooks behind bars and it’s worked,”

Mr Hawkins said major advances, where funding had been increased substantially, were in DNA and forensic science (through ESR work on clan labs). Palm printing was another area where Mr Hawkins said important work was being done. He said that all of these things combined meant that the Government was committed to playing its part in providing Police with the best tools available to do the job and that “after the savaging Police budgets took in the 1990s” he felt that “balance had now been restored.”

Gift to President marks ‘guardianship’ of Association One of the best-kept secrets of the Conference was a special gift of a carved greenstone Manaia (which symbolises guardianship) to President, Greg O’Connor, who was re-elected for a record fourth term.

• Vice-President, Geoff Smith, presents the gift of a carved greenstone Manaia (guardian) to Greg O’Connor in recognition of his long service as President.

208

• The greenstone Manaia gifted to President, Greg O’Connor.

Ne w Zealand Police Association

November 2004

Question time for the Minister of Police During question time, CountiesManukau delegate, Spencer Matthews, raised the issues of remand prisoners being kept in police cells and an overstretched court system “which was bottlenecked”, asking what the Minister was doing “to assist the process of making things, particularly fairer for the victims of crime”. Mr Hawkins said that in 1999 a public referendum on law and order overwhelmingly mandated a tougher sentencing regime and that the Government was now “being rewarded with bad publicity for having our jails full and some of that is due to the very good work of the New Zealand Police”. “We are building new prisons....but the interesting thing about the public is that while they want more people in prisons they don’t want the prisons in their backyard,” he said. “I appreciate the work of Police and Corrections in helping with the problem and yes, help is on the way but it takes some time to build prisons...the problem is that our success is the cause of this problem.” Diana (Penny) Paterson (Tasman) asked if the Minister had any thoughts on separating out the functions of the GDB and Road Policing services, given that there had been “ongoing conflict regarding road policing and general duties policing”. Mr Hawkins again: “I think police officers can actually help themselves a lot by seeing that those who work in Road Policing do an important job, rather than dumping down on their colleagues...road safety is an important element of policing. Not only when they pull people up for speeding or other offences but they quite often have some very good results from some of the villains because villains use the roads to get around the country as much as anyone else.”

Nga Utanga (Tauranga): Made mention of new Intel cells which were assisting police to do their job but said that these positions involved a lot of data entry for non-sworn staff “as well as their normal job, which creates an enormous amount of stress.” “Last year our Youth Services team invoiced the Area Commander for 860 sworn hours on data entry,” Mr Utanga told the Minister, asking if any thought had been given to looking at the support services of Police with a view to increasing them in terms of the area of crime reduction. Mr Hawkins said that non-sworn staffing had increased from 1700 five years ago to 2300 today. “Your Association made representations to me basically saying that if we put non-sworn staff in it would free up police time and I think that is right. I am always looking at opportunities of helping there.” Laurie McNeill (Dunedin) told Mr Hawkins that the Southern District (south of the Waitaki River) was about to lose seven staff to fund anti-terrorist squads and a faster-growing population in the north. “This loss of seven staff drastically affects frontline policing. There is no fat left,” he said. Mr Hawkins responded: “I suppose one of the frustrating things of being Police Minister is that you can’t appoint police to where you want them. Richard Middleton (Senior Sergeant at Counties-Manukau) would probably have more police under his control if I was able to do that but the reality is that the Commissioner looks at the number of police and where they can best be used. He prioritises the needs and roles of police and allocates staff and that is the way it is and has been for years and years and years,” he said. Mr Hawkins said he would take the matter up with the Commissioner upon his return from overseas.

He said he thought public attitudes were “slowly changing” with regards to speed and alcohol and that the road policing units were doing “a tremendous job”.

Spencer Matthews (CountiesManukau) wanted to know about transferability options between sworn and non-sworn roles because he said: “It appears that the direction that Police are taking is that the office jobs are becoming non-sworn and the frontline roles are sworn”.

Michael Cornell (Auckland Central): Asked for an assurance that the Statutes Amendment Bill would be passed this year. Mr Hawkins said that he would like to see it passed before Christmas but said that it “depended on the priorities [in the House] of getting things through.”

Mr Hawkins: “This is not an idea that I really support....there is a degree of flexibility in some areas for that to happen and some people might find the lifestyle more bearable [in the office jobs] but there are huge pressures on the frontline staff and there are pressures, be they different, on non-sworn staff. But we

want to use staff to their best possible use. We want to maximise their effectiveness more than anything and I’m always willing to listen to people and argue those cases around the Cabinet table.” Roger Wasson (Hutt): Asked for the Minister’s opinion on whether there was any intention to match the Australian police-to-population ratio of 1:461 as against New Zealand’s ratio of 1:543. Mr Hawkins: “We are very different countries, they have six Police administrations and if you look at what we’re doing here and without wishing to be rude to our Australian visitors I feel that NZ police do a better job.” Tony Zhorab (Legal representative): Asked if securing indemnities for members (in case of civil action) had been discussed at Cabinet level. Mr Hawkins: “There are more pressures on police, people do watch you all the time but I haven’t taken any papers to Cabinet on it and I don’t think, at this stage, its at that level yet but if you’d like to drop me a line I’ll have a look at it.”

South Auckland pair lay claim to ‘rookie’ title Last month’s issue of Police News carried a story on what we thought might be the country’s shortest serving I-car crew. That followed on from an article in the September issue about the longestserving I-car team in the country. According to the best information at the time, it was thought that Whangarei’s I-car team of Scott Tyrrell and Carolyn Taylor might be able to lay claim to the title but then we received news from Wanganui of Constables Chay McArthur and Raewyn Western. Chay graduated in December 2003 and Raewyn in August of this year. Now we thought that would take some beating...until we heard from South Auckland where their most junior I-car crew was rolled out on 27 August 2004 and consists of Constables Patrick Wells and Constable Jasper Tanner, who both graduated from Wing 217 and commenced duties in the Western Area of Counties-Manukau (Otahuhu District for the old timers) on to giving them roughly 16 week’s service in total. Now that really is going to take the cake. We think...

209

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

OoC staff cover a wide range of issues The Office of the Commissioner was well represented at various times during Conference. Acting Commissioner Steve Long, Assistant Commissioners Lyn Provost and Peter • Acting Marshall and Road Policing Support Commissioner of Police, Steve Long. Advisory Officer, Cameron Bayly, and Inspector John Walker all addressed the Conference and answered questions on a variety of issues. Mr Long talked about general policing issues while Ms Provost addressed some • Assistant Commissioner Peter of the issues that arose from a trip Marshall. to observe policing in Britain while Messrs Marshall and Bayly spoke to the audience and answered questions from delegates about the Police Pursuit Driver • Assistant Programme. Mr Commissioner, Lyn Walker spoke about Provost. DNA Elimination. Here’s a snapshot of some of their comments:

Steve Long: Remand prisoners: “We are addressing this issue day-by-day in a focussed manner. The preference is that Police do the policing and we resolve the remand issues”. He said that he hoped the situation would be resolved by CANZ (Corrections Association of New Zealand) site agreements but that if this did not mitigate the situation then we may have to revisit these issues with the Association.” (Editor’s note: See Amanda Craig’s article on this subject on page 196)

Body armour: “We thought the trial to be successful and officers saw the practicality of the vests. We will look at trialling other manufacturers’ vests as urgently as possible. We also have to find out how the vests go in summer conditions. The rollout would be in a linear rather than a parallel fashion.” Devolvement of policing to the private sector: “These services will continue to be a fertile ground no matter what we do I see both areas growing because of the reassurance the public requires.” Complaints against police officers and the lengthy delays in resolving them: “I have regular meetings with the PCA and I will raise this issue again with them.”

210

The possibility of indemnity for police officers from complaints: “If we are all public officials we’re accountable under the law but I do have concerns about spurious or vexatious prosecutions that sometimes arise.”

O’Connor takes on record fourth term as President

A uniform for non-sworn staff: “I acknowledge the disappointment of non-sworn staff on this but we’re sticking with our original decision [not to have one].”

Association President, Greg O’Connor was elected for a fourth term of three years and now becomes the longest-serving President in the history of the Association.

Peter Marshall:

In accepting the presidency again, Mr O’Connor said that at the start of this year he had given serious thought as to whether he would stand for another term. “Then came the second of February of this year and the Saturday morning The Dominion Post [when allegations of sexual impropriety by police officers headlined that edition], which changed a whole pile of things and resulted in the Commission of Inquiry and then came a whole pile of others things, which are now making this job very interesting,” he said.

Police Pursuit Driving Policy: “It is designed to prepare and make sure that our personnel are in the best position in terms of their own safety 24 hours a day. It is designed to give confidence to police officers, confidence to supervisors, to the administration and to the public. This particular programme is designed to bring everyone up to their maximum potential, whatever that might be and its important to appreciate that the classifications of gold, silver and bronze don’t actually come into force, as such, in the next two year period until such time as everyone has been through that assessment.”

Cameron Bayly: Police Pursuit Driving Policy: “We have a clear obligation to manage these risks and ensure staff and public safety and this programme is merely an extension of the 2001 Safe Driving Policy.” Mr Bayly said that the word “assessment” in the PPDP was actually a misnomer because there was “a training component that came with the one-onone training.”

Lyn Provost: Body armour: “I found that Brixton police officers favoured overt vests as they’re then able to take them off at meal times.” British policing: “I was shocked at the local rates being levied to fund policing. One council’s rates had a levy of 26% to fund policing. There was great diversity and high visibility policing. As far as the diversity was concerned, as an example, at one school in Soho there were 120 languages spoken and the implications of that are significant.” Civilianisation/British police forces: “I was shocked at the level of civilianisation across broad levels of the Police. One force had 50% civilians - a sobering thought.”

John Walker: DNA Elimination: “Protocols are still being developed… the database is voluntary and the intent of it is to avoid the unknown crime contamination.”

A chance to contribute “I’m still a cop and feel that in this job, with the experience that you have enabled me to get with overseas contacts and with travelling around New Zealand, I like to think that I can do more as a cop in this job and contribute more than perhaps if I was back working night shift in Christchurch as a Senior Sergeant, which was my last shift.” Mr O’Connor said that “we hear the facts and figures about more cops than there ever were and the budget is bigger and then you get a phone call, like the one I just got from Hamilton, to say that they’re losing four staff up there, all off the frontline.” “You know then that somewhere along the line it’s just not right and that what we’re being fed, while its very hard to get behind those facts, that its not what we all know and if you’re a frontline cop out there you know that there really aren’t enough of us and that’s what we’ve got to keep making sure that the politicians and bureaucrats know of that reality,” he said. He said it was “a privilege and an opportunity” to keep on carrying those messages on behalf of members and he thanked them for the vote of confidence they had shown him.

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

Solomon Islands policing - back from the brink “Law enforcement officers, with less pay, became puppets and some became corrupt,” he said. “Most people underestimated the level of ethnic tension in our country until months before it happened,” Mr Diosi added.

The President of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Association, David Diosi, was a special guest at this year’s Conference. NZ Police Association President, Greg O’Connor, referred to the RSIPA as a “fledging Association, which is at the same stage of development, which most of our Associations were at 60 or 70 years ago.”

Wantok system Mr Diosi spoke of the entrenched Wantok or Islandism systems whereby relatives, or those who spoke the same language, were often given special favours by those in authority and he said that system was now being addressed.

In his address to Conference, Mr Diosi outlined life in the Solomons, often with humour, and gave an overview of the great efforts of the NZ and Australian Police in helping stabilise the country following civil unrest in recent years, which threatened to destabilise the country and push it towards civil war.

“However, certain local leaders took control of the Police Force and started serving their own interests and those of their cronies and the community and police officers began to lose confidence and this led to the gradual disintegration of the RSIP,” he said.

Mr Diosi said his attendance at Conference “is valued by the Solomon Islands Police Association as a gift by a friend indeed to a friend in need”.

History He told the audience of the history of the Solomon Islands Armed Constabulary, set up by the colonial government in 1915 with just 30 local constables, who “often found themselves in life-threatening situations”. During the second World War, the Armed Constabulary were utilised as scouts, bushrangers and messengers for the Allied Forces. In 1972, the Police Act was enacted, which, according to Mr Diosi, “allowed for a more structured force”. Six years later, the Solomon Islands gained independence from Great Britain but still had a British Commissioner of Police. From 1982 until 1995 the Solomons had a local as its Police Commissioner. “There was no drastic change until the late 1980s when increasing urbanisation, unemployment and foreign influences contributed to major crime,” Mr Diosi said. Since gaining independence, Royal Solomons Islands Police officers have served under four foreign Police

• David Diosi (President of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Association) addresses Conference.

Commissioners. William John Morrow, formerly of the Manchester Police, currently holds the post.

Emergence of militias Subsequent civil unrest and the emergence of militias resulted in Commissioner Morrow asking for a mandate from the government to seek the assistance of the NZ and Australian governments in restoring law and order to the islands. Operation RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands) was the result and Mr Diosi said that Australian and New Zealand Defence and Police personnel had done a tremendous job in helping restore law and order and with training of local police officers. Mr Diosi said that political corruption had destabilised the Solomons and development of the Police service had “been of a low priority”.

By the time RAMSI arrived, Mr Diosi told the audience, there was “near anarchy and almost total disregard for law and order”. The New Zealand Police had done a great job at not only restoring law and order but also the trust, respect and confidence of the Police had been restored since the actions of a few police officers, who had collaborated with militants during the attempted coup of 2002 had eroded it, Mr Diosi told the audience. He said that thanks to the generous support of Australian and New Zealand police and their governments “effective policing had become a reality again” and had helped in strengthening the economic infrastructure of the government and the country and “restored the pride that was formerly a part of the Royal Solomon Islands Police service”. “We are now focussing, given the new resources we now have, on improving our service with transparency, accountability and fairness and with respect for each other,” he said.

Chris Cahill is new Association Director Chris Cahill (Napier) has been elected to the Board of the Directors of the New Zealand Police Association. Chris takes over from Logan Alderson, who has retired from his position as Region Four Director. Chris joined the Police in 1986, as part of recruit Wing 102 and was posted back to his hometown of Invercargill after graduation. There he worked on section as well as relieving in rural postings. Three years later, Chris took LWOP and traveled to Europe where he eventually wound up playing rugby in Limerick, Ireland. On his return home, he was posted to Te Kuiti. He readily admits that he’d “never heard of the place”, although he talked to some fellow Kiwis in Ireland, before packing his bags for home, and they told him that Te Kuiti “was where all the kiwifruit were grown”. Unfortunately, those he asked weren’t big on geography - getting Te Puke mixed up with Te Kuiti and Chris says that he soon realised that the only kiwifruit he was going to

find in Te Kuiti were in the local supermarket. When he arrived in the northern town he was pleasantly surprised to find that most of his colleagues had also been on LWOP and he says he “enjoyed his time there immensely” as a result of that common bond. During his three years in Te Kuiti he completed his CIB induction course and became the town’s only detective, which he admits “was a bit of a challenge”.

Region Four rep By 1993, he was in Napier, where he became an Association committee member, eventually being promoted to uniform sergeant as a sectional sergeant. In 1999, he was appointed the Association’s rep for Region Four on the consultative committee. A year later he returned to the CIB and shortly afterward was a member of the Association’s working party, which looked into CIB recruitment

and retention issues. Chris had a special interest in looking after the CIB members, who had been outside the CIB when Total Remuneration was introduced in 1998 only to find on their return to the CIB that they were heavily disadvantaged by the loss • Chris Cahill. of allowances that had been built into detectives’ TR in the interim. In 2001, Chris was elected as Chairman of the Napier Branch of the Association and since then, as he had done previously in 1999, he has been a member of the core pay round negotiating team. Chris is married to Rachel and his interests include golf, squash, international travel and business. 211

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Life Membership awarded to Lloyd Matheson Retired Association Dunedin Regional Director, Lloyd Matheson, was awarded Life Membership of the Association during Conference.

Rescue) missions with Lloyd over many years, could not be present as he had to attend a fire at Te Anau on the night of the dinner.

His nomination was confirmed at last year’s Conference and the presentation of his award was at the Conference dinner. Lloyd’s wife, Linda, their son Glenn (an Invercargill police officer) and their daughter Kara attended.

Lloyd Matheson joined the New Zealand Police and the New Zealand Police Association in 1968 and began his service at Dunedin Central. On his arrival at Dunedin Central Police Station, he almost immediately became an Association Committee Member of the Dunedin District.

Unfortunately, guest speaker Richard Hayes, a helicopter pilot who had served on many SAR (Search and

Due recognition of outstanding service

Leading Dog handler His service at Dunedin Central saw him become one of the station’s leading Dog Section handlers. He was a great mentor for younger and newer members and his mentoring ability stood him in good stead when promoted to Sergeant in 1988. After his appointment to O/C of Te Anau Police Station, he continued his Association involvement by taking up the role of a committee member in the Southland Police Association District. However. he soon swapped that position for Vice-Chairman and in 1987 he became Chairman of the District, becoming more involved with Association business. The same year Lloyd was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to the Te Anau community and in recognition of his role in SAR.

• Lloyd Matheson receives his Life Membership badge from Greg O’Connor.

In 1988, the Police Department changed some district boundaries resulting in Te Anau Police Station

coming under the Otago Rural Police Association District. Lloyd took over the new Police Association District with great gusto and became Chairman, also combining the role of Conference Delegate until 1996, a similar range of responsibility to that which he previously held in the Southland District.

Regional Director In October 1996, Lloyd was elected Regional Director for Region six (latterly Region seven), a role he successfully filled until his retirement from the Police in February 2002. Often, because of his isolation, Lloyd would have to travel long distances to attend Association meetings - in his own time. Meetings in Oamaru, for example, required Lloyd to allow at least five hours traveling time in order for him to attend a two-hour meeting before the long return journey home. To say that Lloyd Matheson has represented members in outstanding fashion over many years is an understatement. Members in the districts in which he has served hold him in the highest esteem but Lloyd was never one to rest on his laurels and allowed his vision for the betterment of members to be represented at national level also. In presenting the Life Membership to Lloyd, Asssociation President, Greg O’Connor, said that Lloyd Matheson “represented everything the public want in a cop”. He said Lloyd’s policing methods were “commonsense rather than compliance”. Mr O’Connor said that Lloyd Matheson had “worked tirelessly in all fields of the Association to better the life of members”.

Have you moved recently?

• New Life Member, Lloyd Matheson (left) with his wife Linda, daughter Kara and son Glenn. 212

If you have or perhaps you’re about to, please let us know so we can update your records. You can do this by: • writing to us at PO Box 12-344; • calling on freephone 0800 500 122; • faxing us on (04) 496 6819; • or emailing us at: [email protected]. You need to let us know your membership number, new address and if you’re a serving member - your new station.

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

“A good bastard” is honoured by a colleague With the unfortunate absence of Lloyd Matheson’s longtime work colleague and friend, Richard Hayes, due to unforeseen circumstances, Association CEO, Chris Pentecost, did an admirable job of stepping into the breech by delivering Mr Hayes’ entertaining speech, which was themed on Lloyd’s familiar reference to people he liked as being “good bastards”.

Here is a slightly abridged version: I first met Lloyd in 1977, when Tim Henderson and Lloyd arrived to take up their duties in Te Anau. Lloyd and Tim were appointed to Te Anau at a time when the ‘deer wars’ had finished but were fresh in the minds of most Te Anau people...the community had three major industries - deer culling and live deer capture, crayfishing and farming. Competition was fierce in the deer recovery with long hours being worked and bad weather resulting in the crews having some lengthy sessions at the local pub. Tim Wallace employed me in those days, flying one of Alpine Helicopters’ Hughes 500s and my crewman was Colin Yeates, who was a quietly spoken, giant of a man. He was very strong. Lloyd and a colleague had just arrived. Both Lloyd and Tim had arranged to have their furniture arrive in the same truck...and apparently Lloyd arrived first as the Matheson’s furniture was to be unloaded first. With boxes spread about waiting to be unpacked the telephone went announcing their first call out, which was to the public bar of the THC Hotel where a fight was in progress. Uniforms were still somewhere in the maze of boxes. Tim’s stuff was yet to be unloaded so all Lloyd and Tim could lay their hands on were a couple of Dog Handler jackets in an effort to make themselves look official. They arrived at the front door of the pub, only to be challenged by Colin Yeates. Colin was refusing anyone entry to the bar so that the business inside could be finished. Colin looked at these ‘scruffy bastards’ and asked if they really did represent the Queen, and could they please provide proof, whereby they had to explain

that they were the new coppers in town. Convinced, Colin holds out his hand and nearly breaks theirs as he introduced them around the bar - “Welcome to Te Anau!” Around the same time, a good friend and colleague of mine, Alan Bond, encountered Lloyd in his official capacity as a ‘serious bastard’. Bad weather had resulted in a large gathering of helicopter crews at the pub and their numbers continued to swell as the Saturday night progressed. When overcrowding in a particular area of the bar occurred ‘Bondie’ took it upon himself to do some interior redesigning...the alterations proceeded with the use of a chainsaw.

• Chris Pentecost stands in for Richard Hayes and delivers his “good bastard” speech.

ideal time to try out his modified design - ‘dumb bastard’ was not what I yelled at him when he pipes up 15 minutes from home to say: “We’ve just lost him!” When we are involved in a search, as a lot of you will know, there are long periods of tedium when you are working grid patterns, searching for that vital sign of something that doesn’t look right, a broken branch, maybe a colour that is out of sequence. It is at those times when it’s vital to have a good team, with cool heads who work well together. I have certainly been thankful to have Lloyd at my back.

• The “good bastard” himself, Lloyd Matheson.

Lloyd and Tim arrived to a bar full of chainsaw smoke and no one admitting anything. In due course they found out that ‘Bondie’ had been responsible. Tim tells me that diversion hadn’t quite come into NZ policing at the time. However, Lloyd was instrumental in recommending diversion for one Alan Bond. Lloyd persuaded Warwick Maloney that diversion from prosecution was the best way to handle the situation - ‘Bondie, got diversion - and the THC got a new public bar, much to everyone’s satisfaction. My personal association with Lloyd has grown from the many Search and Rescue operations we have been involved in. On one occasion, Lloyd took on the role as my winch operator and wearing his ‘creative bastard’ hat decided that he could devise a better body bag than the one they were currently using in the force. We had been dispatched to retrieve a body and yes, you guessed it, Lloyd decided that this was an

We had an instance where we were required to winch some men off a deepsea trawler that was in the vicinity of the Solander Islands. The Department of Conservation would not allow a passenger transfer off the island, as it was not an emergency flight. The weather down there is always windy and this particular day was no different - plenty of wind and a significant swell. The transfer of men started without a hitch until the men decided to ignore Lloyd’s message of leaving luggage till last. Lloyd looks down to see not only his man coming up the wire but he ‘s got a bloody suitcase in his hand that proceeds to get caught on the skid. So I’m yelling in Lloyd’s headset to hurry it up and “what’s taking so long?’ while Lloyd’s herniating himself trying to swing this bloke in and wrench his suitcase off the skid. As you are aware, I am still fighting a fire that keeps being fanned by Norwest winds, and is currently resisting all our efforts to be brought under control. I deeply regret that I am unable to be with you all as you honour Lloyd Matheson, for he’s a good bastard! 213

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

Every Conference has its lighter moments and here’s a snapshot of a few from this one… Sharon - do you feel about $200 worth of retail therapy coming on? Dunedin delegate Laurie McNeill’s attendance at Annual Conference turned out to be a little more expensive than he had planned. On the second day of Conference, wives and partners of attendees went on a bus trip to Pencarrow Lodge on Wellington’s east coast for a spot of sightseeing and clay pigeon shooting. Laurie, obviously feeling he was on a pretty safe bet given that his wife Sharon had never been clay shooting before, ventured, as the group headed off, that for every clay pigeon Sharon shot he would give her $100. Each shooter got two shots and while many missed both, Sharon proved as good a gun as Wyatt Earp and plugged both of them, no trouble at all. Incentive is everything in some sports ay Laurie?

Gold standard for Aussies After a wide ranging discussion on PPDP (Police Pursuit Driving Policy), Queensland Police Union Vice-President, Denis Fitzpatrick, told Conference: “Yep, we have gold, silver and bronze standards too but we dropped the silver and bronze standards and we only drink gold now - Castlemaine XXXX it’s called.” Fitzpatrick followed this up with an open invitation to delegates. “If you’re ever in Queensland come and see us, you’ll be most welcome. There’s no charge but remember to bring a carton of beer on each shoulder - just knock on the door with your forehead.”

President’s comeback Just to demonstrate that trans-Tasman relations are alive and well, after a round of good natured banter between one speaker, who had just finished addressing Conference and the top table, President Greg O’Connor told one Aussie as he walked from the podium: “There has been rumour and concern that the ugly Aussie was dead but you have just reassured us that he’s alive and well.”

Yes Minister? Journalism 101 -”Never give a politician a chance to give a one-word answer”. Auckland City delegate, Michael Cornell, asked a simple enough question of Police Minister, George Hawkins, but initially, got less of an answer than he had been expecting. Michael: “Minister, regarding the Statutes Amendment Bill, are you able to give an assurance that the Bill will be passed before the end of this year? Mr Hawkins: “No”. (Although he did, after the laughter died down, go on to give the reasons why he could give no such assurance).

The curly one Napier delegate Malcolm Lochrie asked the question on everyone’s lips. “Minister, I’m just curious to know how secure you are in your current position?” The reply from George Hawkins came back, quick as a flash: “So am I!”

A final word After an entertaining speech for new Life Member, Lloyd Mathieson, which was themed around Lloyd’s own endearment of people as “good bastards” and contained references to

Children, Young Persons and their Families Amendment Bill (No. 4) This Bill proposes revisions to youth justice processes. The Associaton took into account concerns expressed by members when it presented a written submission at Select Committee stage. On 14 October 2004, Richard Middleton, Steve O’Connor and Richard Spendelow also presented an oral submission to the Select Committee on the Association’s behalf.

By Acting Association Research Officer, Prue Wilson 214

This submission highlighted concern for victims in the process surrounding Family Group Conferences and the

• David Diosi presents the Alu Alu necklace to Association Executive secretary, Tui Hunter.

“scruffy bastards”, “serious bastards” and “dumb bastards” Lloyd finished his own entertaining acceptance speech with the words: “Well, I’ve retired now - and I’ve joined a new breed - I’m a rich bastard”.

A thank you to Tui David Diosi, President of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Association, made a presentation to hard-working Association Executive Secretary, Tui Hunter, for all her assistance in making it possible for him to attend the Conference. He presented her with a beaded necklace of special significance to Solomon Islanders. The necklace is known as an Alu Alu, which translated means “unification and peace”. “Of course, it has another significance to us also,” he told the audience as he placed the necklace around Tui’s neck. “Usually it precedes a proposal of marriage,” he said. Later President, Greg O’Connor was also presented with a necklace and Mr Diosi commented: “Sorry Tui, I have to marry Greg now.” victim’s ability to represent him/herself and the confusing nature of the Bill. The Association is of the opinion that the Bill was hard to follow in its present form, had contradictory section and would prove hard to implement. Concern was also expressed around youth arrests and bail conditions. The committee officials have since contacted the Association for further input into the drafting of the Bill and its amendments. The Association appreciates the contributions of all members who expressed opinion on the Bill and who helped formulate the written and oral submissions.

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

POLICE COUNCIL OF SPORT

SPORTS NEWS To contact the Police Council of Sport, call Alison Murray at the RNZPC. Ph: (04) 238 3139

Trans-Atlantic rowing pair take NZ Police Sportsperson of the Year title again By Tracy Hall, Communications Manager, NZ Police Association Trans-Atlantic rowers Steve Westlake and Matt Goodman have scooped the NZ Police Sportperson of the Year award for the second time. On 19 October 2003, Matt Goodman of Otahuhu and Steve Westlake of Auckland started rowing the Atlantic and didn’t stop for 40 days. They rowed 5,000kms, sometimes through waves of up to 10 metres and endured scorching heat (over 50 degrees Ccelsius on occasions). It was a superhuman effort by the pair and they are fitting winners of the trophy. They first won the award in 2001 after winning the trans-Atlantic race. Last year they finished second. Police Association President, Greg O’Connor presented the trophy at a Police Council of Sport ceremony in the Otahuhu Police Club recently.

Harsh challenge “The NZ Police Association is honoured to present this award to Steve and Matt, for a second time,” said Mr O’Connor. “Like many Police both past and present, they have excelled in their chosen sport. Their ability to face the harsh challenge of rowing the Atlantic

Ocean, for a second time in just three years, is an impressive show of guts and determination.” Matt and Steve were selected after the Police Council of Sport, who organise the award, called for nominations throughout the country. The award recognised both their sporting achievement at a national level and contribution over the years to lifting the profile of Police through sporting excellence. Matt and Steve visit many schools through the Alan Duff, Books in Homes programme, talking about their experiences and encouraging kids to read and achieve their dreams. Matt says many kids in his area only deal with cops in a negative way, so by attending in uniform he can show the kids that ‘Duffy’ heroes can be Police as well. He says in some policing situations, parents have opened up to him when their children have recognised him.

Coaching involvement Both officers put something back into the sport through coaching and Matt is

The Cannonball run

captain of the Auckland Rowing Club. Steve is currently the NZ Surf delegate for Karekare Surf Club. Steve says their policing background helped them many times, in particular with their thorough preparations and common focus. He said even when the waves or weather were against them, just like Police when involved in an operation, they were a strong, focused unit. Award Background: Since 1970 members of Police who have excelled at a national level have been formally recognised with the Sportsperson of the Year trophy, organised by the Police Council of Sport. The NZ Police Association encourages and supports sporting participation and excellence in Police, proudly sponsoring this award since 2001. Previous recipients include: Silver Fern, Jenny-May Coffin; All Blacks, Murray Pierce, John Gallagher and Blair Larsen; Kiwi (rugby league), Sam Stewart; All White, Roger Gray; Hockey internationals, Shane Collins, Scott Anderson and Karen Smith; Cricketer, Sarah Illingworth; Lawn Bowler, Phil Skoglund; Triathlete, Steve Farrell; Athlete, Andrew Collins; Martial Artist, Karen Mueller and NZ Black Cap, Shane Bond.

Snowboarding Championships attract entries from far afield The 2004 NZ Police Association Police Snowboarding Championships were held at the Cardrona Alpine Resort in Queenstown from 15-17 September. The event was organised by the NZ Police snowboarding club, the Blue Hogs. For the sixth year in succession, participants experienced good weather, including overnight powder on two days. Members from as far afield as Auckland and Invercargill competed.

Southerners dominant The three main events, boardercross, giant slalom and slopestyle were keenly contested with the southerners coming out on top. The results were as follows: 1st. Regan Boucher (Invercargill) Cheapskates Top Boar award. 2nd. Richard Lindsay (Invercargill). 3rd. Steve Lloyd (Christchurch).

• Pat Mulrooney leading the Cardrona Cannonball.

Winner of everybody’s favourite event, the 3km rolling brawl known as the Cardrona Cannonball, was won by defending champion Carlos Marryat (Christchurch), after race leader Don Van Onselen overshot the finish.

Visit www.policeassn.org.nz for updated contact details for the Police Council of Sport management committee, District Sports Officers and the latest schedule of events.

215

November 2004

Police News The Voice of Police

11th Australia and NZ Police and Emergency Services Games to be held in Adelaide in April 2005 ANZPES Games to be held in Adelaide from Saturday 9 April to Saturday 16 April, 2005.

Multi-sports experience Sport and its ideals can traverse all boundaries - national, cultural and political. It has the ability to capture and galvanise a community, a nation and even the world as evident by the Olympics in Athens. If the Olympic spirit touched you then the 11th Australia and New Zealand Police and Emergency Services Games create the opportunity for men and women, who share a common bond through law enforcement and emergency service, to foster the spirit of sport, build camaraderie and promote healthy living. Having been handed the baton from Perth, The South Australia Police Sports Federation Inc, with support from Australian Major Events and South Australia Police, are hosting the 2005

South Australia Police has previous experience in running multisport events (SAPES Games) and will utilise that knowledge, together with experienced sports co-ordinators to ensure that participants training and sporting endeavours are rewarded. Planning is well underway and with the Games theme ‘prepare to take on the world’. The 2005 ANZPES Games will provide competitors the unique opportunity to experience Adelaide before the 2007 World Police & Fire Games. 2005 ANZPES Games Executive Officer, Allan Vilcins, has promised eight days of fun and great competition. “I extend a very warm welcome to all New Zealand Police personnel,” he told Police News recently. “With direct

Touch rugby tournament set down for November 19 The NZ Police Association North Island touch rugby tournament is being held on Friday, 19 November at Anderson Park, Havelock North. The tournament will double as a national trial. A national selector will be present with a view to selecting players for various national Police touch rugby teams. To be eligible for selection, members must compete at either the North or South Island tournaments and register their intentions with the respective organisers. For further details on your local contact, or the tournament itself please phone Bryan Smith at the Flaxmere Police Station on (06) 879-9799, extn 66005 or email Brian via the Lotus Notes network.

SI Police Bowls champs The South Island Police Bowls championships are being held at Waimate on Tuesday and Wednesday, 23-24 November respectively. All intending players please contact: Barry McLauchlan, Tel: (03) 689 7966 or Email: [email protected]

2005 Surfboard champs Expressions of interest are sought from members who would like to compete in the NZ Police surfboard riding championships, to be contested in New Plymouth on 23 February, 2005. Organisers need a firm indication of how many are interested in competing before final preparations are made for the event. Initial interest and questions can be directed to Grant Coward extn 63002 or Email him on Lotus Notes. 216

flights to Adelaide now available, the ability to visit our wonderful city has never been easier. With 50 sports on offer at first class sporting venues, there is no excuse not to be a part of the Games. There is something for everyone and as an example; we are excited to be able to offer dragon boat racing as an event to be held on the picturesque River Torrens in the heart of the city. We’re not looking for world champions. We simply encourage you to be active, be healthy and be a part of the Games.” The 2005 ANZPES Games website www.anzpolicegames.asn.au will provide all the information you need, including on-line registration at a discounted fee. If, however, you have any questions that require that personal touch, please contact the Games office on 08 8226 2688 of via Email sapol. [email protected] Remember to register your interest as early as possible.

Waitakere constable sets bench-pressing record Waitakere-based Police Education Officer, Mike Clague recently achieved a rare milestone in Police weightlifting circles. In a special attempt on the 178 kilogram mark (400 lbs) at the Henderson Police club gym, Mike bench-pressed 182 kilograms (just over 412 lbs). Mike’s initial attempt at 182 kg (409.5 lbs) was unsuccessful, but, undeterred, he lined up for a second attempt and attained the record lift.

Raising the bar But Mike Clague is not one to rest on his laurels and with the record safely in his name, he then went on to better the mark by bench-pressing 185 kilograms (just over 416.25 lbs), a personal best. In a subsequent lift he again ‘raised the bar’ by pressing 187 kilograms (420.75 lbs), a personal best. The feat qualified Mike to have his name engraved on the Bench Press Club 350/400lb honour board next to the only other name on the board - the holder of the 350lb title, Constable Steve Pivac, who achieved his feat in February 1998. Well done, Mike. (Editor’s note: With Mike’s lift has come the obvious question - does anyone happen to know if there is a recorded Police national record for the bench-press and if so what is it and who holds it? If you know email me on [email protected])

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association

Letters to the Editor Write it here! Letters to the Editor are welcome.

Signed letters are preferred, but in all cases the writer’s name and address must be supplied. Names will be published unless there is a good reason for anonymity. The editor reserves the right to edit, abridge or decline letters without explanation. Email to: [email protected] or write it to the Editor at PO Box 12344, Wellington. Letters under 400 words are preferred.

When the chips are down...

Our families have been great, supportive and understanding.

In October, 2002 I was working in Wanganui on Operation Diana. My home station is Pahiatua.

Trudy is now about 90% recovered. I am grateful that the only sign of any deficit is that she is not allowed to drive. Hence the move to Feilding, to be near her family and public transport, which has given her back some independence.

That morning, I received a call over the radio to contact the Pahiatua Police Station urgently. I spoke with Peter Knight who told me that my wife, Trudy, had collapsed at the Medical Centre and was being airlifted to Palmerston North. On arrival at Palmerston North Hospital I was told that Trudy had had a brain hemorrhage and her chances of survival were less that 50%. Because of the bleed, they were in the throws of flying her to Wellington for an operation to alleviate the pressure. At Wellington Hospital, Trudy was placed on life support. I spoke to the doctor in charge who told me that they had done another scan and he believed that the bleeding had stopped. They decided not to operate and said they would ‘let nature take its course.’ During the next few days it was decided to take Trudy off life support as the doctors felt she would be able to function by herself. She spent 12 days in Wellington Hospital before being transferred to Palmerston North Hospital, where she stayed for another eight weeks. With such a serious brain injury in evidence we knew that the recovery would take some considerable time.

She still has ongoing difficulties on a daily basis and life has been tough for us as a family. Life will never be the same but through it all we have learned that when the chips are down the Police Association Welfare team are there to give you a helping hand or at least point you in the right direction. Once again thanks to all. Grant Lawton (Feilding)

Field Training Officer appointments Have you felt as if you were being used but not getting paid when some officers are? I am a General Duties Branch constable with only two and a half years service. So why is it that members like myself, with less that three years (the recommended length to even apply for a Field Training Officer appointment) are accompanying new constables out onto the streets? The department put this system into place over a year ago and in some districts only limited positions were appointed.

Staff at Wellington and Palmerston North Hospitals were exceptional.

So what happens when the FTO member is on annual leave, sick or in court for the day? Who ends up taking the new constable out on to the street, stays late to help with paper work and is still required to make the levy of stats? Yes, officers like myself who are not FTO and therefore, do not receive an allowance. But we do have PA (permanent appointment). We have completed 18 months’ service as a Probationary Constable.

My boss, Taxi, was remarkable with his empathy and understanding and my work colleagues have been great, as was Mark Lammas, who contacted me in the first instance. The Police have been great with their support.

I’m not having a go at the FTOs as they deserve the allowance and if I could apply, I would. But I feel sorry for the new constables that have to either read or hear these comments when they are so new to the job of policing.

It is now two years since this incident and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have given us support over this time. The Police Association has been great with the assistance of their Welfare Officers Ross from Wellington and Janet Baker and a special thanks to Heather Clinton for the time and energy she spent with us.

But why has the Police Department set a precedent? Why should they have their cake and eat it too? “Feeling used?” (Name withheld, Christchurch) Industrial Advocate, Greg Fleming, replies: If you have your permanent appointment then you can apply for an FTO position. There are FTOs, especially in Auckland, with similar levels of service to you. Obviously, the competition for places is hotter in Christchurch with more experienced police officers already on the frontline.

Devaluation of the detective I read with interest the letter by Detective Irons of Auckland City recently and have been quite disappointed at the lack of comment by CIB staff around the country on this issue. Quite frankly, I agree entirely with him. The devaluation of the detective has been an office topic for a long time in Auckland CIB circles and if my informants are to be believed, in other centres too. Police reinforce daily that the skills and experience of staff is an important issue, so I would be most intrigued as to where on the fence, or even what side of the fence, the Police Association sits on this important issue? I’ve had a wee nosy at the General Instructions. There are several instructions dedicated to CIB training. Also, there are the dedicated CIB trainers in the districts and of course the CIB courses and exams. You are also expected to study in your own time if you hope to qualify. You have to be dedicated to complete this training. So, from the resources committed and the nature of the training, we can take it that the department takes CIB training quite seriously. Therefore, it should be taken as read that detectives, by virtue of the stringent training and skills gained, are still valued by the department. I know that the department enjoys the good press when homicides are solved and drug importers are busted and I know that the Crown Solicitors’ Office holds detectives in very high regard, which to me at least reflects the CIB’s unequalled training.

217

November 2004 So how is the obviously highly-valued staff rewarded for their two and a half years of unequalled training? I can answer that too - a jump in pay bands of course - to H band. This might have been an acceptable reward in the past but nowadays there is a multitude of lucky non-CIB members who are currently enjoying their H band levels as a result of policy that quite rightly recognises the skills they bring to that position. But I am not interested in going into that, as the list of personnel going to H Band is becoming endless. But now detectives are watching colleagues catch up to their pay scales despite not having the same training. Why hasn’t the detective’s pay band not been on a par with their non-CIB counterparts and also raised to the next level or perhaps even a new level? Could this be the reason why so many centres are having difficulty recruiting trainee detectives? Is it because there is no financial incentive any more to join the CIB? There was a time, not so long ago, when you had to join a waiting list to get in. But more importantly, why has this pay band inadequacy gone unchallenged for so long? So, on a final note, who should negotiate these inadequacies on behalf of the CIB throughout NZ? I suggest the same person who haggled for the STG’s (Special Tactic Group) current rate, of course. David Nimmo (Auckland)

Disturbing trends preclude effective policing practices After 32 years service, I find it necessary to write to Police News about what I see as disturbing trends, which affect the way in which police officers carry out their duties. Over the years, events have occurred whereby the media, and anyone else wanting to get on the bandwagon, create such a diversion from the facts of cases that the blame falls squarely on police officers’ shoulders, even when all statutory and other enquiries say otherwise. The perpetrator comes out of it lily-white.

Police News The Voice of Police officer should have done it differently. Sadly, we now have ex-police officers becoming experts amidst the media frenzy. Even the Prime Minister has become involved when she should have been practicing politicus interuptus. The main problem with the media and all these ‘experts’ is that with all the coverage they tend to get some credibility. From there, political committees and enquiries are set up. I may be a bit cynical but what generally comes out of those ‘examinations’ is that Police powers are watered down, thereby making it safer for criminals to go about their business. We must not forget, however, that some of the watering down of our ability to carry out our functions lawfully comes from within the same organisation that is supposed to be fighting the good fight alongside us.

We now have a new pursuit policy where someone seated miles away from the action tells a patrol to “pull out” and they must immediately move to the left of the road, stop and turn off their lights and siren. Admittedly, pursuit policy needed to be looked at, but, as with the long baton, training is the only way to improve our ability to do our job properly and safely. Unfortunately, the criminals are the winners in this one. After many years in the Police, the trends cause me to wonder where we are headed as an organisation, whose primary function is to protect the community. We tend to be moving toward the protection and rights of criminals and away from police officers trying to do the job they are paid to do. What next?

We lost the ability to carry the long baton because of perceived problems with its use by frontline officers. The only problem with the long batons is that the Police Department did not provide sufficient training in the use of them. The long baton is the best non-lethal device available for personal protection by properly trained personnel - the operative word being ‘trained’.

Grading of Police drivers – it’s a matter of training

At first, I was dubious about the introduction of pepper spray; however, it appears to be a good personal protection device. But where it has no effect, the long baton would be effective. The new ASP baton requires the officer to get in too close to the offender in its use, making a dangerous situation even more dangerous.

I see no fault in the basis of his argument and agree with the majority of what he said, in that AOS are trained in the use of firearms, the Dive Squad in swimming and SAR in mountain safety, so therefore pursuit drivers should be with regards to driving. One would be no use in a squad if he or she did not hold the required skills.

New rules and regulations regarding the use of firearms make it just too difficult for officers to carry out their duties. We now have the possibility of legislation making it a legal requirement to name the officer who uses deadly force in the execution of his or her duties.

But let’s look at how people obtain the required skill - training. Let me put forward the crazy idea of Police driver training? Should it not be on a regular basis (for all staff, not only the bottom of the heap, sorry bronze) as we do with firearms training, as SAR do with mountain safety training. What do people think?

There appears to be a trend where discretion to charge with criminal and traffic offences no longer exists. Offenders that should be dealt with by a warning are arrested and prosecuted. Is discretion becoming redundant?

Brave officers carry out their duties to the best of their abilities, and in some cases, have had to make lethal decisions in order to protect their own lives and those of the public.

In a recent article in The Sunday-Star Times a Superintendent stated that: “Previously officers had discretion”. From that I take it the inherent power of a police officer has been removed. Where did the authority to take away an officer’s discretion come from?

After the event the ‘experts’ come out of the woodwork and infect the legal processes by their insistence that a police

This is serious interference in the way individual police officers carry out their duties and is something the Police

218

Association should take up with the Police administration.

Colin A MacDonald (Takapuna)

I read with interest Grant Pollock’s response letter in relation to the “Grading of Pursuit Drivers” in the October Police News.

This would allow all police officers, who swore the oath to uphold the law, to do their job. That’s why we are here after all. To tell someone who has been driving for say 20 years, 10 of those in the Police, sorry, you are not good enough to drive in a pursuit so don’t do it again - well, that’s just a cop out. As Jo Fox so rightly pointed out, do we hear AOS/firearm instructors say: “Sorry, you only got five out of 10 shoots in the bulls eye, so you are a bronze and therefore you can only display a firearm, not pull the trigger?” No we don’t, we

November 2004

Ne w Zealand Police Association receive regular training, which keeps persons upskilled and able to use a firearm safely if necessary. That is the key here, regular training. If this new system of gold, silver or bronze is so successful let’s see if we can adopt it into the driver licensing of all New Zealanders. We could perhaps have a gold driver able to drive 100km/h on the open road, a silver 90km/h and bronze 80km/h. Then when more tickets are issued, when these persons exceed there allocated speed, maybe some of that revenue could filter back down to the CIB to enable us to fight the growing “P”/methamphetamine problem. Worth a crack! Wayne Steed (Hastings)

The ‘new era’ and more for less I write in response to Grant Pollock’s letter in the October Police News regarding grading of pursuit drivers. Firstly, with regard to your final comment: “The days of go hard or go home are gone, welcome to the new era”. You are right. We are in a new era open to far more criticism from all quarters and sadly, what seems like little public support from Police management. But, you must also remember, what organisation you joined.

undertook and as part of the oath that they swore. On most occasions, when specialist squads are called out, it is either to a controlled scene (controlled by those same ‘I’ car staff) or well after the event. This applies particularly to divers and SAR (by virtue of where those teams are located). With regards to car pursuits and graded drivers; in a perfect world that system may work. However, these pursuits are generally spontaneous incidents and the ‘Johnny/ Jenny on the spot’ is usually an ‘I’ car staff member. These staff have no say in what happens in front of them or what is around the corner. They are, however, wearing a distinctive blue uniform, driving an extensively marked car indicating who they are. The public’s eyes are on them to deal with the matter. It’s not for the public to have to understand or

try to comprehend that Police may operate a graded system for drivers or who is permitted to do a pursuit. Sometimes, things go wrong, horribly wrong. It can happen to the most experienced member or the least experienced. We have to live with that. If there is a system fault, whether it be driving or any of the other tasks undertaken by staff, that should be addressed through proper training, proper staff selection and not stop gap measures or fanciful ideals. Over recent years, staff are working more and more under the corporate adage of a ‘more for less policy’. Perhaps as a starting point, Police management could look at addressing this area and some of the problems that are creeping in and burdening staff. Howard Roscoe (Waitakere)

Stop press:

Comms subject to review Just as this issue was going to press, the Commissioner of Police, Rob Robinson, announced that an external panel would review Police handling of emergency calls and other calls for service through the Police Communications Centres. Mr Robinson indicated that he had approached several overseas police agencies to “provide input into the panel review”.

You joined the NZ Police. That thin blue line that runs between the good folk and the bad, referred to in the new era as ‘customers and clients’.

The review follows recent concerns voiced about the handling of emergency calls related to the disappearance of Iraena Asher near Piha and the home invasion, which left Te Puke farmer, Peter Bentley with serious injuries. At time of writing, Ms Asher had not been found.

The job, by its very nature, involves risk. Sure, no one wants to get hurt, but it does happen, and on occasion, some of the members don’t get home. Thankfully, those occasions are few and far between.

Other complaints about alleged mishandling of calls, delays and other incidents have since been levelled at Police.

I do not think Grant’s analogies to the Armed Offenders’ Squad, Police Dive Squad and Search and Rescue have any relevance to drivers of Police cars involved in pursuits. These specialist guys do a great job and apply themselves in a professional manner, but there are numerous occasions, where Police frontline ‘I’ car staff have been involved in firearms matters, some with fatal outcomes. There are numerous times when front line ‘I’ car staff, at great risk to themselves, jump into swollen rivers, harbours and streams in an effort to save lives, and do so. Those staff may not have been great shots or feel the most confident with firearms, and know it. They may not have been great swimmers or have confidence in the water, and know it. They did what they are there to do, as part of the job they

In May, Police News highlighted concerns Communications Centre staff held nationwide about shortstaffing, staff turnover and the fact that they felt they could not provide the public or frontline police with the coverage they deserved. Comms staff predicted that it was only a matter of time before the shortcomings in the system were exposed by a serious incident.

Special LTSA funding Subsequently, the Police gained special Land Transport Safety Authority funding of $1.3 million for 18 additional Comms staff. The Association will be asking Police how much of the $13.8 million in the last Budget, targeted for Primary Response Management, was allocated to Comms. Association President, Greg O’Connor said that he welcomed the review. “The Association signaled earlier this year its concerns over Comms Centres and under-resourcing in that area and how that was placing lives at risk, just as it had warned about the spread of methamphetamine use before that. These problems are a further indication that Police resources are stretched and the Association wants to see Government making every effort to address them in the near future.” “Sadly, it seems, we are governed by a regime which reacts only when problems hit the front pages of newspapers,” he added. At time of writing, the Association was in the process of bringing in reps from all three Communications centres to ensure frontline Comms staff views are represented during the current review.

219

Police Health Plan Cover you and your family can trust, when you need it most

Police Health Plan offers a great range of benefits to help protect the health of Police members and their families, with levels of cover tailored to your budget. You can select different levels of protection for each family member, depending on their needs. Choose from: • • •

ʻIn Hospitalʼ cover, which provides for the costs of surgery; ʻBasicʼ, which covers the cost of surgery and basic general medical costs; or ʻComprehensiveʼ, which covers surgery, general medical costs and optical, dental and audiology treatment*.

Other benefits include* ... • • • • • • • • •

Public Hospital cash benefit. Funding for overseas organ transplants (for heart, lung, liver). Sterilisation - available after 3 years of continuous cover. Acupuncture, Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Osteopathic and Podiatry treatment (comprehensive and basic schemes only). Cover for CT, MRI scans and other imaging performed by a medical practitioner (some limits apply, depending on the plan taken). Infertility treatment - available after 3 years of continuous cover (comprehensive scheme only). Paying for a maximum number of children per family with the rest covered at no extra cost. Friendly personal service. Efficient claims turnaround - We aim to have all claims received processed within 10 working days.

*Exclusions, conditions and limits to amounts payable apply. See Police Health Plan Benefits and Subscriptions for fuller details of coverage.

Independently owned and operated by Police Health Plan Limited, the scheme is non-profit and all surpluses are put back into ensuring that members have access to one of the best value health insurance policies available in New Zealand.

For more information call the Police Health Plan

0800 500 122 or visit our website: www.policeassn.org.nz