December 2002 Volume 83 Number 12 "serving the protectors"
By Trevor Haskell PASA Vice President

Challenging times

We cannot solve our problems from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them
– Albert Einstein

Policing is an occupation with many challenges. Officers see aspects of life that many in the community can turn a blind eye to, or watch from safety. The emergency services generally are confronted with reminders of the frailty of life and the unpredictable nature of the time we have on Earth.

The culture of tight bonding – that being in “the job” creates – transcends our differences. While we are all individuals, we are part of a group that develops a sharing with each other. We might argue about all sorts of issues but, when crunch time comes, the collective support for those in need comes from many quarters. When the need comes out of the death of a colleague, the support is always united and strong. In the roles of welfare officer and committee member, I am fortunate to see this unity and strength more than others might.

Sadly, 2002 has turned into a bugger of a year. We have lost too many, and others are fighting battles that each of us fears. There is often little we can do to help fight the physical battle, but the support at the emotional, personal and family levels is where we each tries to add his or her little bit to help.

The loss of colleagues cuts us all. We feel lost and saddened by their passing; we wish we could provide the magic to ease the pain of their loved ones.

The impact of a loss of a colleague by his or her own hand creates additional questions and challenges for us. The questions often appear to have no answers, other than to affirm our own fragility. We seek logical answers when there are only clues to an act that seems to lack logic.

The impact of vicarious traumatization is something I have written on over a few years. The impact of a workplace that creates unreasonable expectations in the mind of a worker is always significant. The isolation, heightened ownership, potential feelings of guilt and changed lifestyle can overwhelm any individual’s coping strategies.

The question that runs through my mind is: what is the nature of investigations into police work-related deaths and other accidents? Can SAPOL, in an objective manner, investigate the structural and organizational issues that might have been at play in these cases? I believe it is difficult for any organization to provide an open review and self-challenging analysis of itself and its possible role in a death or accident. Rather, organizations tend to defend themselves and even ignore or reject questions of structural and organizational causation.

This is why, in the general community, the police and Workplace Services investigate work-related deaths. The company conducts its own investigation, which it provides to the independent investigators as part of the file. The Coroner, in effect, relies on others to do the investigation and might make some requests for other issues to be investigated – if they are raised by other parties. Similarly, Workplace Services defers to SAPOL in relation to vehicle accidents, and I am unaware of its past roles in investigating police deaths.

That there is no independent investigation into police deaths concerns me. The concerns are at two levels. First, the organization can, for the claims it rejects, save itself many thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation payments to families.

Equally concerning is the issue of the nature and type of investigation from a view of prevention. I am sure that the investigators can ably reconstruct a scene and report on the specifics of the past few minutes or hours, but what of other possible factors?

Shift changes, hours of work, workplace policies – both formal and informal – fatigue, nature and type of supervision, training, regular assessment and feedback, alcohol and other drug use, including anti-depressant and stimulant use, and work style factors might all be contributing issues that go ignored. Who sets the parameters for the investigation? The very people who might be criticized or legally liable for workplace practices that might have contributed to the accident or death.

Moreover, once the investigation findings have been gathered, who determines the next course of action? I suspect the same police management that created the workplace dynamics that, in turn, created the accident. How independent is that? It is inane to have a neighbouring CIB unit classed as an independent investigating unit. I argue that it is an unacceptable practice for SAPOL to investigate its own workplace practices.

We are, I believe, owed independent investigations into all work-related police deaths and accidents.

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