September 2000 Volume 81 Number 9
"serving the protectors"
| September 2000 Volume 81 Number 9 "serving the protectors" |
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| By
Andy Dunn |
In the course of their 24-hour-per-day service to the public, police officers have to endure all forms of abuse and name-calling. Frivolous and concocted complaints play an unwelcome part in their dedicated service as well. Police-hating criminals, of course, spew forth vile slurs without compunction. Fortunately, for most cops, those slurs become “water of a duck’s back”.
But a public office holder - such as Adelaide city councillor, Anne Moran - hurling insults at police officers is unconscionable.
She was reported to have described officers as behaving like “rednecks” (The Advertiser, 8.8.00) during SAPOL’s City Safe operation. She also spoke of “...heavy-handed, gun-toting, shootout at the OK Corral” tactics.
But her unthinking outburst was followed by reports (in the Sunday Mail and The Advertiser) of her admissions that she:
- Wasn’t in the city while the operation was conducted.
- Is not an expert on law and order.
- Is not in the city’s entertainment precincts late on weekends.
- Doesn’t walk through city entertainment precincts at 2am.
- Certainly doesn’t know the answer to recent incidents of violence and the prevalence of concealed knives.
Yet in the Sunday Mail article (Anne gives redneck row critics a caning, 13.8.00) she was reported to have rejected claims she is out of touch.
And the judgement she passed on police officers’ behaviour was apparently based on a newspaper photograph, which showed police conducting a perfectly legal search of some youths. This was a sight too beastly, it seems, for Moran to bear.
But in the face of gun-wielding criminals, knife fights and youth-gang violence, how should police conduct themselves, other than confidently and with firmness? When officers deal with street crime - of the type Moran has never experienced - their lives can depend on using the right style of interaction.
It is pointless for Moran to say now she was criticizing the City Safe concept and not individual police officers. She was criticizing them - and the criticism was felt. It was ill-timed, ill-conceived and plain unjust.
Moran should talk to some cops about the perils of late-night city policing, and even express some gratitude for their tireless efforts. She may find that public officials’ support, rather than their condemnation, can help.
Being seen as the “kindly, walking-the-beat officers” - of whom Moran spoke to the Sunday Mail - is not always practical and sometimes counterproductive.
As a public official, Moran would be best advised to leave law enforcement to police and reserve her judgements for matters in which she is expert.
One couldn’t imagine she would prefer to do the policing herself.
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