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Thread ID: 135658	2013-11-28 03:15:00	From the Police Commissioner November 28	WalOne (4202)	PC World Chat

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1361036	2013-11-28 03:15:00	A fortnight in the spotlight By Commissioner Peter Marshall November 28, 2013 It has been a busy fortnight of good and some not-so-good news. I'll start with the good - the launch this week of our Safer Summer road policing campaign, including the introduction of coloured highway patrol cars, which we believe will save lives. This week all constabulary staff received an email from me confirming our stance this summer. There will be no tolerance of speeds more than 4km/h over the limit, and strict adherence to promoting safe driving during December and January. In 1972, the year I joined Police, 713 people died on our roads. This year we hope to have the lowest number of deaths on record. However, it's not about statistics, it's about safety. We bear in mind that every death or serious injury affects on average 200 family members, friends and others. We're in the business of protecting life and property. Everyone in Police - regardless of which area of policing he or she is involved in - has an obligation to our road users in this regard. We've been subject to a lot of media comment around issues in the headlines. If it seems we're in the spotlight in a negative way, please keep matters in perspective. Don't lose sight of the fact that Police deals with around 3000 calls for assistance every day. We bring 40,000 prosecutions and our communications centres deal with nearly two million calls for advice and assistance every year. We provide a 24/7 service to the public and it's vital that we behave in the most professional and ethical manner as we do so. We're all aware of former Senior Constable Gordon Meyer's convictions in Christchurch High Court on Monday last week. I rang Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald to congratulate him and his team on bringing an unsavoury chapter to a conclusion. It's a matter of record that 9000 hours were devoted to that investigation. I would much rather there hadn't been such offending from a staff member and that we'd been able to devote that time elsewhere. But we have a policy of zero tolerance of criminal conduct among staff, so it was time well spent. Within days of the convictions I was preparing correspondence to the Police Minister's office seeking authority to have Mr Meyer's Long Service and Good Conduct Medal revoked. I'm pleased to confirm Minister Tolley had no hesitation in approving this. Revocation will be formalised with notification in the next Ten One Police magazine and Mr Meyer has been advised accordingly. I'm sure this will be welcomed by all our members and outside observers. This week the issue of family violence, one of Police's key priority areas, was the focus of White Ribbon Day, and I was interviewed on the subject. It has a huge impact on our communities and Police workload and we'll make inroads only through working collaboratively with other organisations, as our frontline staff well know. Frontline knowledge is exactly what we were after in our Continuous Improvement online challenge, in which we asked frontline officers in the Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Southern districts to come up with good ideas for improving the way we use our vehicle fleet. It's now moving rapidly toward a conclusion. Of 118 ideas entered, four of the most promising will shortly go through a "Dragon's Den"-type session. More about this in due course. On the subject of good ideas, we had an excellent result last week in the annual Human Resources Institute of New Zealand awards. Our Organisational & Employee Development group, part of Human Resources, entered our Integrated Talent Management initiative, which ensures we can identify staff members' potential early enough to give them appropriate development opportunities. We won two awards recognising excellence and commitment - the State Services Commission Public Sector Award and the SilkRoad HR Technology Award - and a Merit in the overall HR Business Contribution Award. Well done to all involved. Here's an unusual achievement elsewhere - the inclusion of a story about Sergeant Regan Horsfall in the recent New Zealand Herald 'greatest NZ stories' series. The report recounted how Regan jumped on a horse on the East Cape to chase down a naked, axe-wielding man - a great story indeed, and a great example of bravery and initiative. This week I've been in Dunedin, opening the Special Olympics with Minister Tolley, before visiting a number of police stations in Central Otago. Stay safe and look after each other. :)	WalOne (4202)
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