February 2003 Volume 84 Number 1 "serving the protectors"
Front-line deputy?
By Brett Williams

SAPOL has a new deputy commissioner who wants to spend time on the front line of policing. But with the demands of his job, could he ever really manage the odd evening out with a patrol crew?

No seasoned street cop could shock Deputy Commissioner John White with the suggestion that he might be out of touch with front-line police work. SAPOL’s new No. 2 man has heard all the age-old lines about senior managers in ivory towers. Some of those lines White even uttered himself – as a young operational policeman.

But when he stepped up to the role of deputy six months ago, White, 56, started with “the best of intentions” to stay in touch with the coalface. So has he, since last August, managed to turn his intentions into deeds?

“I haven’t been very good at that (spending time on the front line),” he concedes. “And I suspect that, here, looking at the demands of the job, I’m not going to get out as much as I’d like to.

“I certainly want to get out and do some patrols and keep in touch, because they’re the people who are delivering the front-line business of policing to the community.”

But if the demands of White’s new post have not allowed him time on the streets, how has he stayed in touch?

“I’ll go through all the (running) sheets and know what’s happened overnight,” he explains. “I’ll send e-mails and memos out to people for good work or something that’s happened, just to let them know that I am aware of what’s going on.”

Unpretentious and surprisingly affable for a man of such high police office, White practises the common touch. He always stops for a moment’s banter with the rank and file he passes on the street; and he seems not to regard them as lesser beings.

Some he has invited into the senior executive group boardroom for a cuppa in appreciation of good work. Others he has visited on sick leave and in hospital.

Some might suggest his e-mails and memos would scarcely impress worldly street-wise cops, who live the daily war against crime. But White has a sense that, for now at least, he enjoys the confidence of those he leads.

“You don’t go about automatically seeking their support,” he says, “I think that (support) is one of the outcomes of good leadership. And I have always had as my leadership philosophy being bang upfront, honest, sincere and consistent.

“If you do all of those things, and you’re committed and take an interest, I think respect comes automatically. I’d like to think that people respect me for what I am as a person rather than the rank.”

White understands that, as a top decision-maker, he can never hope to please every cop on the payroll. Of the decisions he makes, however, he welcomes vigorous scrutiny – and the “constructive criticism” to which it leads. Without criticism, he insists, even a deputy commissioner loses any real ability to “continually improve”.

White took on the deputy-commissioner role with 38 years in the job and an enduring love of police work. He speaks of accepting the position as “an honour”, and his calm voice belies the enthusiasm with which he undertakes his role.

But, at the same time, he vows he has begun his last stint as a policeman. So his career finale will mirror that of his predecessor, Neil McKenzie. He will serve the term of a five-year contract and then retire one position short of the top job.

And that’s fine with White, who says he never aspired to be the Commissioner anyway. He describes that post as “very strategic” and heavily focussed on “corporate involvement”.

“This (the deputy’s role),” he says, “is more the nuts and bolts of getting on and managing the day-to-day operational business. That’s what I really enjoy. I’m still very much at heart an operational police officer.”

White’s earliest ambition – when he joined SAPOL as a 17-year-old in 1964 – was simply to retire as a sergeant. To the then raw recruit, the thought of a commission never even occurred.

Before he signed on, White had known his parents held misgivings about his career choice. But when a veteran officer – whom they knew through their church – convinced them of the merits of the job, their concerns disappeared.

White, a former Muirden College boy uninspired by the thought of an office job, had always wanted to be a policeman. He thought the job would offer the outdoors, variety, adventure, and the chance to contribute to “the wellbeing of the community”.

After only two years in uniform, he joined the CIB in 1968. The young White began his detective life with stints in the Anti-larrikin, General and Fraud Squads. He would later work in suburban CIBs and come to revel in the challenge of the investigation field.

“I was a pretty active young police officer,” he says. “I used to go out and pick up a breaker or an illegal user on the shift. I was always grabbing somebody.

“The challenge was dealing with criminals who try to outsmart you while you’re trying to outsmart them. I think you pit the brain against them.”

Squaring off in the Supreme Court, and the thrill of a conviction, were never lost on White either. He always felt it a great reward to “put away somebody who had caused huge harm to the community”.

Telling the story of any one of his investigations, however, seems a tough task for him now. He says that, in his mind, many of those on which he worked simply “roll into one”. But he never forgets his most tragic cases, such as those of child sexual abuse and the murder of an entire family in the 1970s.

“When you reflect back,” he says pensively, “those things stay in your mind.”

As his police life went on, White spent time in the education field, where he taught both recruits and aspiring detectives. He won his commission in 1981 and, with time in such areas as crime, drugs, communications and records, his career went from strength to strength.

But, to his personal life, White would take a devastating blow in 1996 – on the day turned 50. To the then chief superintendent came tragic news of a malignant growth on his kidney.

White remembers that, for a time, “it didn’t look very good for me”. The ravaging cancer prompted him to reflect on his life. A confessed workaholic, he took account of the price he had paid for a successful police career.

“I was very sorry that I hadn’t spent more time with my family,” he says. “As an old detective, I was always at work. And, really, my wife raised my son because I was never home.”

Doctors saved White’s life but had to take his kidney in the process. He has, since his illness, remained cancer-free.

After he recovered, White continued to move up the ranks. In May 1997, he won an assistant-commissioner position and headed the controversial three-year Focus 21 programme. Set up to reform SAPOL, the programme drew heavy criticism from many rank-and-file police.

He later served a term as chief of the Southern Operations Service, before a year-long stint as Assistant Commissioner, Crime. Then, on August 8 last year, White took his last step up the police promotional ladder.

And, from the outset, he has found his deputy-commissioner role a great challenge. “I hadn’t fully appreciated the full-on commitment this job really requires,” he says. “That doesn’t faze me, but it is fully demanding. Not only do you have the operational issues, but you also deal with a whole range of corporate responsibilities.”

Nonetheless, White believes that, to his job, he brings such qualities as leadership, empathy and “a strong feeling for the operational area”. He also speaks of his sound knowledge – gained through study tours of the US, UK and Canada – of modern law enforcement.

So, for his term in office, what will emerge as White’s pet projects? One is bound to be SA’s road toll, which he describes as “still unacceptable”. White has no experience as a traffic man, but intends to see the toll brought down.

The delivery of SAPOL’s human-resource services is also in his sights. “There are some good, hard-working people in there (HRMB),” he says, “but I still think there are some opportunities to improve…

“It is a complex world that our people operate in today, so I certainly am keen to make sure our HR processes are as effective as they can be.”

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