The word crisis is so over-used these days that it has almost lost its meaning, but frankly the law and order situation in this country is a crisis in the true sense of the word.
In fact in some areas of the country – South Auckland for example – it appears that law and order as we know it has completely broken down.
And the question is why. My view is that we are pumping huge resources into the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, where we should be stopping those that are likely to fall over that cliff.
We – the humble taxpayers – spend a fortune on legal aid – why don’t we spend that money on preventing crime.
Why don’t we have a fair and reasonable review of the New Zealand Police. The New Zealand Police force is seriously under resourced. We hear all this garbage about increasing police numbers by 1000 but lets look at the facts.
For years, when the police have asked for better pay they have been fobbed off with extra perks. Now when a police officer leaves the college in Porirua, he or she starts with 7 weeks holiday per year. They then get toil – time off in lieu – which can add up to several more weeks leave per year. Many officers struggle to take the time off they are owed.
The truth is that most police officers don’t necessarily want that much time off. They would prefer to have more standard leave provisions and to be paid a decent wage.
The government has lost the plot. Take the wider public service for instance. The government, concerned that they are failing to retain valuable civil servants, have announced they are going to give them an extra weeks leave.
How does that help?
How does a civil servant, including the police officer, pay for the inflated price of petrol or cheese with an extra weeks leave. What they want is a wage that allows them to continue to serve their country.
And this propensity to grant extra leave rather then extra money, compounds the problem of the lack of service from civil servants – particularly the police.
It sounds wonderful to hear that we have an extra 1000 police to protect us. The truth is that inexperience is replacing experience and a substantial proportion of them are on leave anyway.
Until we sort out the resourcing of our police force the situation in South Auckland will get worse and spread throughout the country.
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