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Dear Andy

I am writing to give the Police Association my support and best wishes for the up and coming addresses before the select committee hearings into SAPOL staffing levels and resources. We all have a tendency to worry about our own “back yards”, but this issue runs deep and right across all operational areas. The frequently used cliché, “we have all got to be united” cannot be truer. PASA has fought many important battles for its members over the years, but this is a topic that has become dear to me. I know many who are screaming out within themselves yet, probably, too afraid to be openly critical for fear of threatening their careers or halting a climb of the “ladder to success”.

I haven’t climbed the ladder much but I’ve been around a little while. I remember patrol cars without luxury items, people convicted on unsworn typewritten records of interview. A time when junior officers were taken by the hand of a real “senior” member and shown the ropes, when any report that had typographical errors wouldn’t get past the sergeant.

I also remember a time when the general community received better service from the banks, the phone company and, I believe, SAPOL. We no longer seem to be a community service but one driven as a business. Most people argue they no longer receive the same customer service of years gone by, and I think we’re no different.

I do not long for a return to the days as in Car 54 Where Are You?

I’ve seen many changes for the better. But, somewhere along the way, we do seem to have lost the plot a bit and, no, I haven’t lost the plot. Just look at it a little differently these days. We’ve gone from Gunther Tootys to Robo Cops, carrying video cams around like it’s some reality TV show, yet no one’s been provided with cameramen, I note. Hell, all I see are solo patrols wherever I go these days.

I’m not against change, but don’t change things just for the sake of it. There seems to be an over-abundance of nonsensical change.

And, more seriously, the department and the government should not and cannot continue to fob off the issue of staffing levels any longer. Enough of cut-backs and stagnated numbers veiled under a banner of efficiencies. We’re leaner and meaner in terms of strength and budget than I have ever known. We are more active and efficient than I have ever known. And, still, they ask for more (of operational members) with less. No one could argue that we are now very well equipped with tools of the trade, but it’s no use having the tools without the personnel to work them.

The Kent model of local-service-area policing has been embraced and, frankly, it would be great to work under if only we had the strength of numbers that the model calls for so it can be effective. Country LSAs work the model well below what is required. I’m sure the department’s consultants on this will say the same thing, if only they listen. All I have seen since it was introduced is a burgeoning number of niche positions with everyone trying to jump off into one of them, leaving operational areas understaffed. If I hear of another project, I think I’ll be sick.

Everybody knows that, if you neglect or maltreat any species long enough, sooner or later it will not be that loyal, trusting and faithful companion it was bred to be. Even the most timid or docile of breeds is capable of turning rabid and biting back. Or, worse still, it can take ill with such things as distemper.

I have had some experiences that have twisted my perspective of things, but I am not bitter and twisted about the department I work for. I remain loyal to the cause, only, for God’s sake, send us all a few more to share the increasing load.
Yours sincerely
Scott Davis

Rhetoric but no change in strategy

The Editor

With some vindication, I believe, some older traffic supervisors would have smiled at recent comments in the media from representatives of the RAA and government that there should be a new emphasis on road safety. Comments regarding RBT and speed detection, and a quote from Acting Supt Lough regarding plain-clothes, plain-car patrols cause me to reflect.

On January 29, 1999, I submitted a report entitled Traffic Policing – Back to Basics, A future look.

In that report, I submitted that RBT was outdated in its present form and made a strong case for plain-clothes traffic police, plain-car patrols, changing driver behaviour and mobile RBT.

Ironically enough, I read the recent comment in The Advertiser, that: “the motorist would not know if that was a plain clothes police car or Joe Citizen behind them.” I just wonder where that comment came from. I seem to recall that these were submissions I made and, as yet, despite all the rhetoric about fatalities and driver disobedience, I have not seen a true strategy change by the organization regarding road safety.

As with any new strategy, it starts with one person’s passion to see a change. But, despite many years of suggesting, pushing and submitting reports to get those of some influence to consider the need for change, the system creeps on.

Back about 18 years ago, when Traffic Task Force had not been relegated to the storeroom of old thinking, plain clothes, plain cars and an aggressive attitude towards drink driving and changing driver behaviour were practised with some vigour. Some of us will remember the places and strategies (plain turbo-charged Sigmas). I see that the department has recently acquired some plain SS Commodores. Was this just another photo opportunity?

Nationally, drink driving, speeding and bad driver behaviour are being pushed as a crime. This means that added resources can be allocated to deal with the problem.

South Australians are the worst drivers in the country, and television ads and pamphlets won’t change that. Let the traffic police, police the traffic.

The twist is that Adelaide Traffic has just had its plain car replaced by a marked car.
Bruce Hartley
Sgt 1964/0
Adelaide Traffic Response