March 2002 Volume 83 Number 3
"serving the protectors"
| March 2002 Volume 83 Number 3 "serving the protectors" |
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Physical risks to police officers are clear and undeniable. But as the Police Journal Editorial highlighted three years ago, observers often overlook the mental and emotional strains of front-line police work.
And never could the potential to succumb to those strains be higher than it is in crash-investigation work.
Such potential loomed large in the investigation that Senior Constables Paul Friend and Fred Bakker undertook two years ago. But in their relentless quest for proof, they kept emotional distance from those connected to their job. They did this in not only their own interests but also those of their case.
In so doing, they might have appeared to some as cold or uncaring. But to best serve their communities, front-line cops have to be quick to recognize – and avoid – emotional traps. It is all too easy to compromise an investigation when one’s emotions override one’s objectivity.
And for officers’ psychological wellbeing, intangible distance serves as a survival mechanism. In The Pursuit of Proof, Fred Bakker rightly warned that “…cops who take on others’ deep sorrow can ‘go around the twist’.”
At the same time, however, neither he nor Paul Friend was devoid of emotion. Bakker felt particularly sympathetic toward grieving parents, and Friend spoke of a “sick sensation” as he photographed an accident scene.
And driving both officers was, in part, their wish to deliver a positive outcome to a dead man’s parents.
To remain psychologically unimpeded and essentially unemotional can, for cops in all front-line areas, be a tough task. But the men and women of our thin blue line seem always to have the balance right between compassion and professionalism.
Two Victorian police officers reported a motorist, Frank Decmar, for speeding (110kp/h in a 60kp/h zone and 75kp/h in a 50kp/h zone) at 10:15am in suburban Melbourne last January. Decmar was rushing his sick wife to hospital and, at the time, had his young son in the back seat of his car.
Infuriated over two infringement notices totalling $560 and a four-month licence suspension, Decmar went to the print media, which published his story three days later.
Victoria’s police minister, André Haermeyer, appeared on A Current Affair and branded the officers’ actions as “heavy-handed” and “over the top”.
Without consulting the officers, the fines and suspension were overturned.
What would the media and minister have said had the officers not acted and Decmar crashed, killing his wife, son, another motorist and, indeed, himself?
The least these officers should receive, as suggested in the Police Association (Victoria) Journal, is an apology.
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