June 2000 Volume 81 Number 6 "serving the protectors"
Police ally in the WEATHERMAN
By Brett Williams

olice life is no mystery to South Australia’s best-known television weather presenter. Channel 9’s Keith Martyn understands the cop psyche. Years of interaction with a range of police - from band members to Major Crime investigators - have allowed him insights rarely available to the public.

He has seen reluctance in many police to form personal relationships beyond “their own world”, and job stress to which others have fallen victim. He has also seen families’ devastation first-hand after the recent years’ spate of police suicides.

Today, Martyn suspects cops are poorly supported, and therefore unable to achieve law enforcement’s most basic objectives.

“Police are out on the streets,” he says, “trained to interpret the law and capture the villains. If that’s not happening because they’re not getting support at the bar (table), or from the politicians, then there can’t be a great deal of job satisfaction.

“The police officer is trying to do his part in reducing crime. But when court sentencing is not in line with what he expects, he would be very disappointed. I’d be disenchanted, and I know a lot of police officers are despondent.

“A person let off lightly would think: ‘Well, I can make a mockery of the police department’, and that would be an insult to a police officer. But that’s an insult that I’m afraid police have to bear all the time. I feel very sorry for them.

“It would be hard being a police officer (with) the disappointments you’ve got to suffer, apart from the ratbags out there with weapons and no regard for the police force.”

Martyn remembers the death from cancer of a Major Crime investigator whom he knew well and “held in the highest regard”. He still reflects on the degree to which the stress of police work played a part in the officer’s death.

And he is convinced that, for police, stress can not only induce debilitating mental and physical conditions, but also barriers to social interaction.

“That,” he says, “becomes a pretty hard lot for the police officer if he’s walking around disenchanted, not getting job satisfaction, not highly paid, and with his life on the line.

“If I was in that position, I’d be saying: ‘Why am I doing this? I’m coming home grumpy; I’m tired; the kids want to do something I can’t; I’ve got a bad case running; and somebody’s issued a threat’.

“I think the general public has to rethink the role of police officers, and support them.”

Without the benefit of his current-day insights, however, Martyn tried to join New South Wales’ thin blue line as a 15-year-old. But his then small, lightweight build let him down, while the police department sent him away with some weight-gain advice: “Drink milk and eat bananas”.

Today, describing his rejection as a “blessing in disguise”, Martyn concedes his nature was never suited to police work. And, had he been accepted, he says he would not have stayed in the job anyway.

So, with thoughts of a crime-fighting career abandoned, he began his working life as a roustabout and shearer in Queensland and north-western NSW. In the early ’60s he studied agriculture and sheep and wool classing.

He later studied rural property valuation and became a rural officer with the ABC, where he first presented weather reports in 1965.

After stints with country newspaper, The Chronicle, and later The Advertiser, Martyn joined Channel 10 (then 7) as weather presenter in 1980. Since then, he has been credited with redefining the weather-presenter role through his authoritative style and incisive reporting, which have earned him a nationwide reputation.

“I don’t have any illusions about the media,” he says. “People see it as something for their egos, but I don’t. To me, the media is a very good educational (tool).”

In 1985 he joined radio station 5AD, where he and fellow-announcer, Jeff Sunderland, teamed up as breakfast-shift presenters. Martyn joined Channel 9 in July, 1996.

And, from years of press experience, he understands the need for quality police-media relations. “One needs the other,” he says, “they’re hand-in-glove. We want to get the information out very quickly, and police do too if there’s somebody on the loose out there. All police departments are aware that they need exposure to help them do their job.”

But for that hand-in-glove affair’s occasional strains, Martyn says blame rests with police departments and media bosses alike. Too often, he insists, journalists who don’t understand police procedure are assigned to cover law-and-order issues, while police sometimes brief journalists inadequately.

“Commissioners and heads of television empires should meet occasionally if there’s any problems,” he says.

Martyn openly expresses admiration for police, whose job, he believes, is riskier than any other in society. And he has regularly used his access to the air waves to support the police cause.

“I talk about the police on radio to try to help them,” he says, “and make the point that we need the cops. It’s bad enough with some of the judgements being handed out; we’ve got to try to support them. If I can say a good word for the police on air, then hopefully that helps their morale.”

But would Martin recommend a police career to young job seekers? “Knowing the responsibilities and pressures (police) work under,” he says, “and the depression that must follow that, my immediate reaction would be: ‘Don’t become a police officer’.

“But on the positive side, if you are serious about a profession and want to do something in life, you’ll do it - and enjoy it.”

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