May 2002 Volume 83 Number 5
"serving the protectors"
| May 2002 Volume 83 Number 5 "serving the protectors" |
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Retention critical
In the March Police Journal, I raised the issues of high police-officer resignation rates, the now average length of service (12 years – males; seven years – females) and the associated draining of invaluable police experience.
These issues are not confined to SA but affect all Australian police jurisdictions.
They will require the Police Association and federation’s full commitment in the months and years ahead. Accepting the current high level of resignations will:
• At best deliver mediocrity to the police occupation.
• Not deliver the police services the people of South Australia – and, indeed, the nation – expect and deserve.To guarantee the retention of experienced officers, police commissioners and state governments are obligated to ensure appropriate career structures are put in place.
Further, the coming retirement of the baby-boom generation will, in Australia, hit police services – as has been identified in Canada and the USA – sooner than most industries. This, of course, will result in a further drain on police experience.
The need for enhanced career paths and a 20-year retirement plan is, I suggest, overwhelming. It is now time for governments and police commissioners to move on from their economic-rationalism policies – particularly downsizing and the like. They must train their focus on the important human-resource issues that face today’s modern policing.
And, of those issues, none emerges as more critical than the retention of personnel.
PETER ALEXANDER
PRESIDENT
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