Kerre Woodham: Policing is a community-minded calling

Now the police have been in the spotlight in the past few weeks. It should have been criticism, with Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul's comments and the criticism of police pulling back from attending mental health call outs, but in fact, the attention has highlighted just how much our men and women in blue are valued.  

I'm pretty sure that wasn't the original intention of Tamatha Paul when she made her much publicised comments that people in Wellington didn't want to see police officers everywhere: “for a lot of people, it makes them feel less safe”. She said it's that constant visual presence that tells you that you might not be safe there if there's heaps of cops. She also accused police of waiting for homeless people to leave their spot, packing up their stuff and throwing it in the bin. She doubled down on her comments later and said it was no wonder some people didn't trust police because they were quick to use force against people with mental distress.  

To give her comments some context, she was speaking at a panel with the University of Canterbury Greens and Peace Action Ōtautahi, where alternative forms of policing were being discussed. So you can imagine it wasn't a police love-in. These were people who were anti-establishment outside of what they would conceive of as a patriarchal, oppressive society, and they have their views their own experiences. And that's what it was. She might well have had anecdotal experience of people having unsatisfactory dealings with police, but plenty of us had our own anecdotes of more than satisfactory dealings with police, and that's what came out. It wasn't a police pile on, in fact, people came very quickly from all corners to defend the police.  

When we were discussing mental health last week, for example, and whether people were now more able to access the care they needed, we had about four or five texts and callers tell us they didn't receive much help from mental health professionals. Where they got the most help and support, tangible help and support, was from the police. Far from being quick to use force against people with mental distress as Tamatha Paul would have it, the police officers they encountered were kind, compassionate, patient, and able to offer practical solutions for friends and family members.  

So there were criticism of police responding to mental health events, and now they're getting in the neck for withdrawing their response to mental health events. I do not blame them for not wanting to be the first port of call – that is not what they signed up for, and that is not what they were trained for. But because every other agency and organisation abrogated the responsibilities, the police were last men and women standing. And police have announced they will be delaying the changes and will stagger the withdrawal of services across districts to give the appropriate agencies more time to prepare, as Police Association President Chris Cahill explained to Mike Hosking this morning.  

“Police have agreed to just slow down and do it by district. I mean the best thing Mike, is finally Health at the national level are recognising they've got to step up and take responsibility for what is a health problem, not a police problem. Originally people in the health area just didn't want to take responsibility and that's what we learnt from overseas, unless police draw a line in the sand and say, nope, you're going to do it, the people suffering mental distress won't get the right care, from the right people, at the right time. And that is not police officers sitting in in hospitals for six hours. That's not good for anyone. So we had to push it. We pushed it, so now we're engaging, and I understand – we want to slow down and just make sure we get it right. We don't want anyone falling through the cracks. But remember, police will still go to anyone who's at risk of harming th

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carrywood of morning's podcast from news Talks,
he'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now, the police have been in the spotlight in the
past few weeks, and really it should have been criticism
with Wellington Central MP Timoth of Paul's comments and with
criticism of police pulling back from attending mental health call outs,
but in fact the attention has highlighted just how much
are men and women in blue are valued. I'm pretty

(00:35):
sure that wasn't the original intention of Tamoth Paul when
she made her much publicized comments that people in Wellington
didn't want to see police offices everywhere. For a lot
of people, it makes them feel less safe. She said,
it's that constant visual presence that tells you that you
might not be safe there if there's heaps of cops.

(00:59):
She also accused police of waiting for homeless people to
leave their spot, packing up their stuff and throwing it
in the bin. She doubled down on her comments later
and said it was no wonder some people didn't trust
police because they were quick to use force against people
with mental distress. So to give her comments some context,

(01:20):
she was speaking at a panel with the University of
Canterbury Greens and Peace Action or Totahi where alternative forms
of policing were being discussed. So you know, you can
imagine it wasn't a police lovin. These were people who
were anti establishment outside of you know, what they would

(01:45):
conceive of as a patriarchal, oppressive society, and they have
their views, you know, and they have their own experiences,
and that's what it was. And she might well have
had anecdotal experience of people having unsatisfactory dealings with police,
but plenty of us had our own anecdotal dealings of
more than satisfactory dealings with police, and that's what came out.

(02:07):
It wasn't a police pylon. In fact, people came very
quickly from all corners to defend the police. When we
were discussing mental health last week, for example, and where
the people were now more able to access the health
they needed, we had about four or five texts and
callers tell us they didn't receive much help from mental

(02:29):
health professionals. Where they got the most help and support
and tangible help and support was from the police. Far
from being quick to use force against people with mental distress,
as Tamotha Paul would have it, the police officers that
encountered were kind, compassionate, patient, and able to offer practical
solutions for friends and family members. So there were criticism

(02:55):
of police responding to mental health events, and now they're
getting in the neck for withdrawing their response to mental
health events. I do not blame them for not wanting
to be the first port of call. That is not
what they signed up for and that is not what
they were trained for. But because every other agency and
organization abrogated the responsibilities, Oh we don't have the staff,

(03:16):
we don't have the money, We simply don't have the people.
You do it. The police were lasked men and women standing,
and police have announced they will be delaying the changes
and will stagger the withdrawal of services across districts to
give the appropriate agencies more time to prepare. As Police
Association President Chris Carhl explained to Mike Cosking this morning.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Police have agreed to just slow down and do it
by district, I mean the best thing like and finally
health and the national level are recognizing they've got to
step up and take responsibility for what is a house problem,
not a police problem. Originally, people in the house area
just didn't want to take responsibility, and that's what we
learned from overseas. Unless police to align on the stand

(04:00):
and say nope, you're going to do it, the people
suffering mental distress won't get the right care from the
right people at the right time. And that is not
police officers sitting in hospitals for six ass that's not
good for anyone. So you know, we had to push it.
We pushed it engaging and I understand what we're on.
Slow down and just make sure we get it right.
We do want to I'm falling through the cracks, but

(04:22):
remember police will still go to anyone who is at
risk of harming themselves.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Or the public exactly. It was Chris Carhol Police Association
President talking to Marke Coskin. But I was really interested
to see given the pylon and given the fact that
there was a change in the way police were being
asked to police under the last police commissioner. That's now
come back to more perhaps orthodox understanding of how police operate,

(04:50):
whether policing was still an attractive option for young New
Zealanders and what it is that draws men and women
to the job. And I was to see that applications
for Police College one thousand, three hundred and seventy one

(05:12):
for the eighty to one hundred places. That's in a month.
I thought that was a year when I first looked
at the figures. That's in a month. In July of
twenty four there were one thousand, three hundred and seventy
one applications to join the police, the highest since data
was gathered in twenty fourteen, and August of twenty four
it was the second highest, one thousand and thirty seven

(05:35):
in the month of August of twenty four. So on average,
they're receiving last year about five hundred and twenty six
applications per month. Obviously they'd go down January December, so
that's where you get the figures leveling out. That's up
a couple of one hundred per month more than in
twenty three. That's a hell of a lot of people
who see policing as a really important career that they

(06:03):
feel they can offer something to, that they feel they
can get some thing out of. And I would love
to know, given how much attention has been put on police,
what the role should be of police in our communities,
whether they are an oppressive tool of the patriarchy or
in fact that they are as I see them, compassionate, tolerant,

(06:29):
amazing men and women who are incredibly efficient at what
they do and are doing their level best. They're not
heavy handed. I mean, I'm old enough to remember what
it was like in the eighties when it was a
bit you know, young cowboys going in their truncheon's ahoy.
These days it's a whole lot more nuanced and complex.

(06:50):
And that's the way. But what on earth makes our
thousand more than a thousand people a month fill out
an application to join the police? Are these young school leavers?
Are they men and women who have had some life
experience and have had some interactions with police and feel that,

(07:12):
you know, they want to give back In a day
and age where we are so self obsessed, we're so insular,
we're all about the self. The ego being a police
officer is a really community minded calling. How is it

(07:34):
that there are so many many people who feel that
it's a calling for them.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
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