Posts by Phil Wallington
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One way or another in my journalistic career I have much to do with the police. I was a police reporter in Sydney in the mid 1960's and subsequently worked in every state of Australia and also spent a couple of years in the UK. In all these places law and order and the frontlines of crime and punishment were grist to a mill which produced many stories. Some of them were big stories indeed. In some instances heads rolled and I can claim credit for breaking a story which led to the Royal Commission which ensnared some crooks including a Police Commissioner and Police Minister. The Minister managed to duck for a time and actually became the Premier of W.A. before his fall from grace. He joined another former Premier (a political opponent) on a prison farm. That story took many months of hard graft and the covert assistance of a very senior policeman who was disgusted by the conduct of his colleagues. In journalism as we know it today NO reporter could devote the time to single-mindedly complete an investigation like this. Today reporters are too few, top harried or insufficiently skilled or determined to undertake the long haul. In 2013 New Zealand (with the exception of Fairfax's Phil Kitchin) we are bereft. As newsrooms shrink so does the appetite for anything that eats up valuable resources which, perforce, need to be harnessed to the demands of instant, "breaking" websites.
In times past we eavesdropped police communications, cultivated contacts within the sworn ranks and occasionally shared a beverage with the cops. We spoke directly to officers about their cases and their methods.
Change has happened -- for the worse -- on several fronts. The police have retired behind a wall of professional spin provided by communications consultants and few if any serving officers believe that journalists can be entrusted with sensitive details and information -- off the record -- but which enables the scribes to understand the often plodding and painstaking course of investigations.
Trust has gone and it is fair to say that many serving police are part of a culture that divides the world into them and us. We are referred to as "civilians" by members of the civilian police service. But the truth is they are not military police or members of the armed forces -- NZDF -- who are properly entitled to make the distinction.
"Safer communities Together" is a great slogan but an ideal hard to realise.
Lest you think me "anti-police" I can honestly report that I have written and reported on the many deeds of police -- the good, the bad, the ugly, the corrupt, the fiercely honest and even the heroic.
It boils down in the end to the age old question, "quis custodiet ipsos custodes"... who guards the guardians?
Let me refrain from discussing the manifest shortcomings of the IPCA... That is truly an area where some solid journalistic investigation would bring numerous matters out into the sunlight.