What You Can Do to Stop the Shiftwork 'Blues' - New Zealand Police ...

PoliceNewsThe Voice of Policesquads in the Police such as VIPPS whoget comprehensive and regular unarmedcombat training. This is great stuff that reallyworks. Why are frontline first responsestaff who are the most likely to encounterviolent offenders not given such training? Atpresent I believe we are setting staff up tolose on the street aka the ‘real world’. Howlong are we prepared to continue goingdown this road? I am sick of hearing aboutcops getting the crap knocked out of them.The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)driven passive training we are getting is notpreparing our staff for the sometimes-brutalworld they work in.In the real world offenders aren’t alwaysfriendly and don’t always comply withdirections that you give. In the real worldOC spray doesn’t always work. In the realworld several baton strikes on an ampedand aggressive offender won’t necessarilyhave any effect. In the real world bad guyshate cops and given the opportunity willtake advantage. Let’s get more focussed onreal world combat training to give staff theskills to survive and the confidence to workeffectively.Gerrit Westeneng(Helensville)For and againstI would like to take the opportunity tocomment on two separate letters from theDecember issue of Police News.Denis Foster from Whakatane highlighted hisconcerns about what he saw as a poor designof the “self populating forms” containedwithin the Police National IntelligenceApplication (NIA). He raised a number ofissues around this. He went on to say that amember from his policing area had createda much better system that enabled him tocomplete a file in about 30 minutes.I have used the NIA based prosecution formset since it was released and prior to thetraining offered to districts. I’m certainlyno expert when it comes to using NIA,however, I consider myself reasonablyproficient. It takes me about 30-40 minutesto complete a file. The system creates mostof the forms needed for an initial prosecutionfile, populates the correct details, enters thecorrect charge within the Caption Summaryand gives headings/footnotes to assist you inwriting it.Don’t get me wrong, parts of the forms couldbe better and some forms need to be added.However they are the National Standard andI believe are about the best attempt the Policehave made to simplify our job.It seems to me that this is not an issue of thesystem not doing it’s job but rather a Policedistrict/area not providing their staff withadequate NIA training, especially if staff areunable to enter their own files and charges. Inmy opinion we should all be able to completea file from start to finish and should only relyon Visual Display Unit (VDU) operators etcwhen and if they are available.I find myself in an unusual position where Iam supporting the efforts of PNHQ. Believeme this is very seldom the case but I dothink they are doing their best to create asystem that will assist us in our duties. Iwould ask Denis and those who agree withhim to stick with the system. Upgrades arein the pipeline and I believe by the end ofthe year we should have an exceptional filemanagement system.Karl Robertson of Taupo highlighted a newtrend/blanket policy being enforced byPolice National Headquarters (PNHQ) andNational Human Resources. The policy isto exclude applicants from joining the NewZealand Police that have previously beencombatants in a war zone. A “combatant” isdefined as someone who takes a direct partin the hostilities of an armed conflict. A “warzone” is defined as being a region where waris going on; where structures are damaged orin disarray, appearing similar to the effectsof a military conflict; by extension, anyarea with a significant display of damage ordisarray. Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor(prior to 2001) would clearly qualify.I’m sure with a wider application of thedefinition that we could also include thelikes of the Solomon Islands etc.If Police are going to use this policy ofexclusion then shouldn’t we now be lookingto sack/medically discharge all thosepolice officers that have served within theaforementioned regions? It would stand toreason that if military personnel are affectedenough to exclude them from Police servicethen shouldn’t the same criteria apply topolice officers serving in the same region?I believe the person who instigated thisobscure policy should stand down as theyclearly have no idea about the suitabilityof candidates for the NZ Police. Take thefollowing examples as cases in point:Candidate 1: 18-year-old, fresh out ofschool, never traveled overseas, no lifeexperience, likely to be targeted by offendersdue to his or her age/appearance.Candidate 2: 22-plus, military service,extensive life experience often operatingwithin high stress environments, weaponstrained, self defence tactics trained and welldisciplined.I am not saying that military staff makethe best police officers and there couldbe instances when it works against themand it’s not for me to say (from the aboveexamples) who would ultimately make thebest police officer. However, I know who Iwould choose and I know who I would wantto be with if the proverbial hit the fan.I can’t see how someone can be acceptedinto the Police who can’t pass initial testingsor the Physical Competence Test at Collegeyet someone who clearly passes everythingis refused because of overseas service in amilitary capacity.I believe PNHQ owe an explanation tothose who have missed out on placement/recruitment because of this policy and Ichallenge them to do so within this forum.Gavin Scott-Petersen(Te Awamutu)The ‘headmaster’ feelat the Police College?I’ve recently noticed the new designationsfor certain leadership vacancies advertisedat the Royal New Zealand Police College(RNZPC). These new “Head of School” titlesare interesting, and sound to me like yetmore influence being brought to bear fromour friendly educationalists.However, I realise that these new titles willperhaps allow for outsiders to apply for thesejobs, so that they can assist with how policeofficers should be - from their perspectiveanyway - properly trained. Personally, I’vealways preferred our traditional titles suchas “Inspector in Charge of Recruit Policing,”etc. To me, that has more of a ‘Police’ ringto it.No doubt a lot of time, money and researchhas gone into the re-branding of these titles,but personally, as a police officer, the whole‘headmaster’ theme doesn’t really spin mywheels.Mark Buttar(Johnsonville)Holiday homes - some people don’tknow a good deal when they see itI have spent the last three years as a holidayhome caretaker. It has been an interestingand rewarding experience but I must admitto being surprised that people find so muchto complain about.For a small country like New Zealand we areindeed fortunate to have such great homesand I for one would not be able to affordto travel around the country as often as Ido without the large number of homes atmany different locations. As an example,the two holiday apartments in Newmarketare in a very desirable location, within ashort walk to the brand new NewmarketRailway Station and shopping centre. Each54March 2010