December 2001 Volume 82 Number 12
"serving the protectors"
Chaplaincy
Thank God for police culture
Chaplain to Sturt Police
| December 2001 Volume 82 Number 12 "serving the protectors" |
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ChaplaincyThank God for police culture |
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| By Chris
Beal Chaplain to Sturt Police |
One of the things I value most about my connection with SAPOL is the quality of community life among its members. Police support of one another, and their families, is a model for the rest of society.
Community life in Australia has been quietly eroding for some years with the rise of individualism. Rather than see ourselves as members together of a common society, many people see themselves as individuals who happen to live among other people who are either there to serve them or to buy their services. This is a very sad and incomplete view of what it means to live as human beings.
If you want to know about the real state or health of society, one of your best sources is a police officer. Their actual experience of society out there is first-hand, and not viewed from behind the comfort of a desk or through the skewed reality of television.
I well remember talking some years ago with a retiring senior sergeant with 30 years’ experience in the job – on patrols and in the CIB. He had seen and done it all and nothing about human behaviour surprised him anymore.
I asked him what he thought, based on his years of experience, was wrong with our society and what should be done to correct our slide into anti-social behaviour and lack of care for people and property. He responded with one clear sentence: “The ‘me’ generation needs to become the ‘we’ generation.” I have since quoted these words to many people.
The quality of community life one finds within the police culture should be valued and preserved. It mirrors much of what the Christian Church has been trying to establish for 2000 years: a supportive, honest and real community of people who are there for each other through thick and thin. I say, thank God for police culture.
SA Police Chaplains
Welfare Section 58 David Marr 8364 3567 Senior Police Chaplain. Academy 8 Brenton Daulby 8272 8324 Adelaide: Angas Street 158 Bruce Grindlay 8295 2220 Adelaide: Hindley Street 62 Bruce Grindlay 8295 2220 Adelaide Hills Division 54 Adrian Stephens 8398 2510 Office: 8398 2517 Ceduna 214 Sybil Peacock 8625 3505 Christies Beach 20 Peter Coote 8381 3039 0412 818 995 Clare 202 Michael Dutschke 8842 3681 Communications 172 David Hand 8376 5612 Elizabeth 52 Lindsay Mayes 8281 8088 Far North 210 John Folkman 8672 5011 Firearms/Records Dianna Bartlett 8337 8552 Gawler 52 Brian Tscharke 8522 2288 Glenelg 22 Malcolm Thomas 8377 0772 Henley Beach 18 Tim Kowald 8449 6868 Holden Hill 44 Rod Dyson 8365 1170 Kadina 71 Vacant Kingston 208 Mount Gambier 208 Brian Ashworth (w) 8723 1353 (h) 8725 2537 Murray Bridge 200 Malcolm Bottrill 8532 5536 Naracoorte 208 Bruce Cliff 8737 2457 0417 811 702 Norwood 60 Lynton Wade 8362 2227 0418 831 703 Nuriootpa 204 Andy Kowald 8562 1011 Port Adelaide 6 Jeff Oake 8341 5930 Port Pirie 206 Steve Ardill 8632 3977 Prosecution Services 176 Vacant Port Augusta PS 210 Mark Thomas 8642 2487 0401 671 850 Port Lincoln 214 Peter King 8682 3725 Riverland 212 Robin Zadow 8588 1540 Salisbury 53 Vacant South East Terry Natt 8571 1114 Sturt 12 Chris Beal 8278 9578 Ian Dempsey 8296 7292 Tea Tree Gully 48 Bob George 8395 9363 Thebarton Barracks 32 Joe Grealy 8338 3225 Transit Division Wayne Shepherd 8443 4895 Whyalla 218 Tony Redden 8649 3593
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