July 2002 Volume 83 Number 7
"serving the protectors"
| July 2002 Volume 83 Number 7 "serving the protectors" |
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The South Australian community is fortunate to have so many among its police force who care deeply for troubled youth. To juvenile offending, those officers could take a one-dimensional approach: arrest, charge, present to the courts and move on.
And who would blame cops for that? Juvenile crime is a source of great frustration to all law enforcers.
But the cops written of and referred to in Blue Light’s 20 successful years pursue a strong humanitarian line which, history has clearly shown, benefits all. The evidence is there. This invaluable police input has kept some young people out of the juvenile justice system and from tragic adult lives.
To save only a handful from various paths of destruction would be enough to make Blue Light worthy of its existence. But, clearly, it has rescued many more.
In typical style, few cops ever speak of the extensive out-of-hours time they devote to Blue Light discos, and other programmes. But Blue Light state co-ordinator, Sgt Graham Brett, has said that, without officers’ selfless off-duty input, many programmes could simply not operate.
We now know that SA police officers picked up the Blue Light idea from Victoria, where it first emerged in 1976. That those officers expanded it into so many other productive fields is a credit to their imaginations and lateral-thinking.
By coincidence, the officers who featured in Blue Light’s 20 successful years have also served as Police Association delegates. Combined with their Blue Light work, these roles show their single-minded focus on others’ interests.
But Blue Light could enjoy no stronger endorsement than positive parental feedback. Sgt Brett has spoken of some impressed parents’ unwillingness to send their children to any non-Blue Light functions.
And Blue Light’s recent foray into work with victims of crime is a bold but worthy step. The community will watch for this venture to achieve the same outstanding results as have all other Blue Light programmes.
The Police Journal wishes Blue Light, and its dedicated police officers, continuing success.
All of us at the Police Journal went to press with this month’s issue with the heaviest of hearts. We felt the loss of Senior Constable Bob Sobczak as acutely as the rest of the police community.
We have written of Sobby from the President’s Message right through to the Chaplaincy page. No amount of remembrance, we believed, could have been too much.
The Police Journal extends heart-felt condolences to Snr Constable Sobczak’s family, friends and workmates.
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