2012-11 - New Zealand Police Association

INVESTMENT FIRSTSocial media minefieldAccording to statistics, 2.2 million New Zealandersnow use Facebook, with most users checking theirpage up to four times a day. This makes Facebookby far the most popular social media site in NewZealand, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter.As social media use grows, so too do thenumber of cases, here and overseas, whereemployees who post negative commentsabout their employers may find themselveswithout a job.Peter Cullen, an employment lawyer,and Tom Reidy, CEO of Social Mediaand Creative Engagement at Catalyst90,addressed the annual conference offeringcautionary tales and tips on how policecan keep themselves safe when using theinternet and avoid any conflict of interestwith their jobs.1. Make sure you always keep any personalprofile details you upload on socialmedia sites as locked down as possible –make sure all information is secure.2. Be aware that all information youview at work can be tracked by youremployer and all information on socialmedia sites can be accessed by, and isowned by, social media sites that canthen pass on the details to advertisers.3. Don’t post anything on the internetthat you don’t want people to knowabout because it is impossible to deleteit. This includes making any commentsthat compromise the employmentrelationship of trust and confidencebetween you and your employer.Mr Cullen also told the delegatesthe story of the serving British policeofficer who secretly ran a popular,award-winning, anonymous blog calledNightJack, which detailed his police workand his personal views on social andpolitical issues.“We were told that a tech-savvyjournalist worked out who NightJack wasand was going to expose his identity,” MrCullen said. “NightJack wasn’t very happywith that, so he sought an injunctionin the High Court to stop it. It becameapparent that he wanted to stop it becauseif his employer got to know who he was,there could be consequences for him... hethought it was in the public interest thatjustice was spoken about and that his rightto privacy was protected.”However, the High Court refused togrant the injunction and ruled it wasin the public interest to know who wasblogging about police operational matters.That was the end of NightJack’sblogging career and the end of policeemployment for one Detective RichardHorton.Mr Cullen added: “Would he be sackedhere? Highly likely.”In a fittingly post-modern postscript,it turns out that the reporter who exposedHorton had used computer hacking toestablish his identity. Horton threatenedto sue The Times for damages and has justsettled for £42,500 (about NZ$83,000).Renewed callfor generalarmingThe issue of general arming of allconstabulary police officers wasonce again debated at the annualconference. Delegates discussedwhether or not recent changes tofirearms availability, such as theplacing of firearms in frontlinevehicles, had been sufficient to makefull general arming unnecessary.Delegates were concerned that,while in some areas access tofirearms had improved, in others theredistribution of weapons meantstaff in some stations and workgroups now had virtually no firearmsavailable. This included CIB, whorely on AOS or armed GDB staff forsupport when executing warrants,and specialist groups such as TeamPolicing – a member of which wasrecently shot at, at point blank range,in Auckland.The reduction in firearms andTaser training availability was alsoof great concern to delegates, witha considerable number of staff nowlikely to be deployed to frontlineduties with little or no firearms orTaser training.Following the discussion, delegatesfrom Counties-Manukau proposeda series of motions reiterating thePolice Association’s support for fullgeneral arming of all constabularypolice officers. The motions wereadopted unanimously by theconference.A full list of conference motions willbe available in the December issue.Former Police Association Southerndirector and recently retired fieldofficer Dave Steel, a quiet achieverof the Association, was nominatedfor life membership at the annualconference. His years of service anddedication to the Association willbe officially recognised with theawarding of life membership at nextyear’s conference.At this year’s conference, NapierbasedSenior Sergeant LukeShadbolt was re-elected as vicepresidentof the Association, withno other nominations received, tocontinue working alongside hisco-vice-president Stuart Mills andPresident Greg O’Connor.new zealand police aSSOCIATION november 2012 259