Counting the beat

Glad to see we are taking beat duties seriously. The forming of new community beat teams in the main cities will help sort out some of the incidents in their CBDs. To be fair, being a beat cop is not for the fainthearted. You are accessible to everyone and must be quick on your feet to respond. My first sergeant once told me that he caught more burglars as a beat cop than any fancy alarm system, though I doubt burglary is the main demand for these teams. I was thinking about where they would get the 90 cops not currently doing anything to fill these teams. How about PNHQ?

Takin' care of business

Our Business is now Their Business? The new “Our Business” posters were released the other day, and I noticed Government targets listed as Police targets. So we just “contribute” to these numbers? I suppose it’s a get-out-of-jail-free card to play if those numbers aren’t reached. The Government can say it’s Police’s fault we didn’t live up to our promise. This is the start of the slippery slide of politics influencing policing, which is nothing new really, just this time it’s in print! And the Code of Conduct got a freshen-up as well. But I don’t see any improvement in the resolutions process. That failure just keeps grinding along slower than a snail on crutches. It was supposed to help everyone, not drag everything out.

Back on the chain gang

Do you remember that gang member with the full-face tattoo who couldn’t get a job, and had turned his life around? The media just lapped that stuff up, story after story about how cruel the world is. Like you, I didn’t buy it for a second. All the flash media campaigns in the world won’t detract from gangs and gang members committing heinous and destructive crimes every chance they get. Tatt guy has now been sentenced for running a meth syndicate from inside jail.

The greatest show

I’m an advocate for public safety teams (PST), frontline response, general duties policing, whatever you call it (there have been several iterations over the years). Those dedicated, brave and outstanding teams have a new tagline after reading the Police News article about the recovery of Constable Zane Wienk. His comment on his love for PST should be written on every car: “It’s seriously the front seat to the best show on earth.” Legend!