View bordering on criminal

I watched a senior police officer being interviewed regarding rising crime on NewsHub. The manager’s view was that even though reported crime was up, 40% in some cases, actual crime was the same. Um, nope, where have you been? The public is reporting crime as it sees it and is reacting to what is happening in communities, and all we seem to be saying is, “It’s OK, ‘our’ figures say crime hasn’t increased”. Well, the mantra of our public feeling safe, being safe is getting lost in unconvincing arguments. Oh, and by the way, a message to superintendents: If a reporter claims you speak from the coalface, please do us all a favour and correct them. You don’t.

Policy 'aid' in for some stick

We have a new "refreshed" pursuit policy. Yay, can you feel my enthusiasm? And to get the message through to us, PNHQ has developed awesome stickers to go into our patrol cars to remind us of the policy. Apparently, the stickers go on the sun visors. Handy, I thought, we’ve had “reminders” on the sun visors before. But this time, PNHQ, in all its wisdom, has asked for the stickers to be put on the upside of the visor, you know, the bit that faces the roof! What? Before we begin a pursuit, or think about one, day or night, we flip down the visor and have a read? Silly. I wonder how much the “sticker project“ cost?

Long road to aknowledgment

Transport allowance reimbursements: Offers have been made, some winners and grinners. I wonder how many taxpayer dollars would have been saved if Police did one of two things:

1. Paid the allowance at the time; or, if not,
2. Accepted the Police Association’s argument and Employment Court outcome at the start a couple of years ago.

Just saying.

It's the final countdown

So, the 1800 new coppers pledge is complete. Well done. I must admit I didn’t think we would ever get there. It has dragged on and doesn’t really feel like it’s made a difference. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since 2017 and it is clear the amount of work rolling in has swamped the benefits we initially hoped for. No one would say figures are my strong point, but I got the trusty calculator out and it seems there might be more cavalry on the horizon. Labour has a policy of one officer to 480 Kiwis. I make it about 1:490 now. So, if we can fend off those Aussies and their $20k incentive packages, it looks like the college will be as busy as ever.

P.S: Rest in peace Bruce Lamb, you will be missed.