January 2002 Volume 83 Number 1 "serving the protectors"
New association man – with human touch
By Brett Williams

Tom Scheffler used to attend crime scenes in the early-morning hours as a detective. Today, he could still appear on those scenes at that time, but would do so as the new Police Association member liaison officer.

So, where he once investigated murder, robbery and rape, he will now work to protect police officers’ rights. And since he became the MLO, in October last year, he has been “hungry” to give “more and more” of himself to his new role.

Police Association president, Peter Alexander, says Scheffler has dealt with “members’ issues” from his first day on the job.

“Tom’s been able to settle into it very quickly,” he says. “We’re very pleased. He has very good people skills, and an understanding of the police department. He knows people in all sections.”

After 20 years in the CIB and with court cases still pending from his police days, Scheffler, 47, still feels like a detective. But he has preferred to dive headlong into his new role to master it more quickly.

He has already found that, life as an association official is “no walk in the park”, but remains undaunted. With support “on tap” from the association leadership, Scheffler feels all the more confident in the job.

“The hours are long and intense,” he says, “but members who have had anything to do with the association realize it’s a full-on position.

“You get to work at 8:30am, don’t have lunch, look up and it’s 5:30pm. I’ve always said: ‘If you go to work and lose track of time, it’s a good job you have’.”

Scheffler has so far worked on member grievances and assisted in policy areas. He has also researched enterprise bargaining, and will soon study ways to enhance the association branch structure. His work will later include delegate training and liaison in the field.

Says Alexander of the newly formed MLO position: “It is important that, within the association, members have a point of contact. This position will do that. Tom will work closely with the assistant secretary (Mark Carroll) and liaise with the branch officials.”

And Scheffler’s credentials tend to suggest he can easily fulfill that role. He went to his new job with 30 years’ police experience and a history of union service. The former Port Lincoln detective had worked in patrols, traffic policing, the Drug Squad and Human Resources Branch.

He had served PASA as a workplace delegate at Port Lincoln, and a committee member from mid-2000.

As well, Scheffler as a child learned valuable life lessons from the early plight of his post-war German-migrant parents. He remains intensely proud of the working-class environment in which they raised him.

He wanted to resign from SAPOL during his cadet training in the early ’70s. His father – a fitter and turner at GMH for 30 years – forbade him. Scheffler became, and has remained for the rest of his life, grateful for his father’s strong stance against him.

Nonetheless, after years in his delegate role, Scheffler found work as a committee member a “real eye-opener”. The volume of issues that crossed the board table for discussion staggered him.

“Legal files came across the table, policy had to be made and our finances always had to be considered,” he says. “There’s a lot of very serious business decisions to be made (at the board table).”

But the husband and father of two had to leave both the committee and SAPOL to take up the job as MLO. Along with other applicants, he was “very keen” to win the position. And, after his first three months, comparing his new role to police work comes easily.

“You research, prepare industrial briefs and take statements from members,” he says, “so there’s a lot of similarities. On the other hand, you obviously deal with a different client base.

“In policing, you’re dealing with criminals and dysfunctional people, whereas our members are very functional, decent people.”

Scheffler believes that, to his role, he brings experience and awareness of the problems that can arise in a police career. He also speaks of the “vast contact base” he has built up through his own time as a cop.

Fluent in German, and an old-fashioned communicator, he insists that e-mails often fail to “get the right message across”. “There’s nothing better than having that one-on-one encounter,” he says.

“I’m going to get out there and speak to people one-on-one, get their trust and get things organized. It’s very important that human touch.”

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