December 1998 Volume 79 Number 12 "serving the protectors"
News

Police Management Says “No” to Inclusion on Call-Out List   By Brett Williams

SAPOL has refused to notify the Police Association of “critical incidents” in which its members are involved - unless requested. The refusal follows a police senior-executive-group meeting which concluded that on-scene assistance to traumatized police officers was already “managed in an efficient manner”.

The Police Association has slammed SAPOL’s decision of which it was informed by letter from Commissioner Mal Hyde.

“There’s no question about the pettiness of it,” said Police Association secretary, Andy Dunn. “Yet again, members will see this as the employer attempting to put a barrier between them and their union’s protection.”

Although no specific definition yet covers critical incidents, they are generally considered to be shootings, vehicle accidents or other events by which police are traumatized or left open to charges.

Police welfare, psychology and internal investigation branches are called automatically to such incidents through their inclusion on SAPOL’s call-out list.

“It’s absolutely essential that our members have appropriate legal representation and back-up from their union,” Dunn said. “That’s what the Association being called out as a matter of course can do.”

SAPOL assistant commissioner, Jim Litster, denied that the senior executive group’s stand created a “barrier”. He said the “reasoning” behind the decision was to keep incident scenes simple by minimizing the number of on-scene police and support personnel.

The benefit of simple incident scenes, he said, was always evident “when you actually get down to the legal forums somewhere down the track”.

“If we were to send a letter back (to the Association) saying: ‘We’re not going to call anyone out, and we’re not going to help you in any way’, that would certainly be a barrier,” Litster said.

“What we’ve said is: ‘We won’t put you on the call-out list, but we will guarantee that, if a member requires (Association) assistance, and requests it, we’ll facilitate that.’ ”

But Dunn expressed the concern that, in some instances, police officers may be too shocked by their circumstances to think of requesting an Association representative.

“And if they’re not quick enough on their feet to say to their boss, or an investigator: ‘I want to speak to the Association’, we won’t be called out,” Dunn warned.

“We simply want to look after our members.

“There are certain incidents where our legal counsel have said: ‘I wish I had been involved in this incident earlier to give advice to your member.’ ”

Litster, however, said that SAPOL wouldn’t reverse its decision - even if it proved to be one with which Association members indicated common dissatisfaction.

PASA President Wins National Position  
By Brett Williams

Police Association of South Australia president, Peter Alexander, has been elected president of the Police Federation of Australia.

Peter Alexander: “...there are many challenges associated with the role...”

He was elected to the position at the federation’s first council meeting held on 29 October in Hobart.

The PFA represents over 40,000 police officers across the country. It won federal registration in January after a High Court challenge by three State governments and four police commissioners.

Alexander will continue as PASA president and remain in Adelaide. He said he was “very proud” to have won the PFA presidency.

He said the essence of his task was to provide leadership and bring police unions of all States and territories together in “an industrial sense”.

“Obviously, there are many challenges associated with the role, but I look forward to being able to achieve them,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for a lot to be achieved on a national level.”

Alexander succeeds the former president of the now defunct Police Federation of Australia and New Zealand, Leon Kemp.

ACN 003 099 125 See the current issue of PASA Journal for more details or contact Meg at UNE Partnerships Pty Ltd. PO Box U199. University of New England NSW 2351. Australia Tel: (02) 6771 1097 Facsimile: (02) 6772 5230 Email: megganm@unep.northnet.com.au The Education & Training Company of the University of New England