RANDOM REMINDER
LITTLE BOYS BLUE
One can not but admire the efficiency of the New Zealand police force, and sympathise with its many difficulties. But it is to be boped that the force will not follow the lead of the Victorian Police Association which has called for a reduction of half an inch in the minimum height for police recruits. There may be a temptation, here and there in New Zealand, to recruit good half-backs and hookers for the police Rugby teams, but a reduction in the size of t
our policemen would be a backward step. One metropolitan police force in New Zealand discovered that recently, when a journalist was invited to become a temporary member of the force to learn something of the policeman’s lot It would have been quite impossible to have found, in police stock, a uniform or boots or baton small enough: and it was abundantly clear that had the temporary appointment really required the wearing of a uniform, that the recruit would have looked startingly similar to Charles Chaplin in one of
his earliest and most successful films. There may be some trifling value in small policemen. They would find it easier to look through keyholes, they could more easily be disguised as jockey* than. say the present average seniorsergeant, and hiding under beds would not produce particular problems. But we don’t want too thin a blue line. Policemen somehow inspire more confidence if they are large and a little on the stout side. Perhaps a minimum of 15 stone for admission to the recruiting school?
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Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 26
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262RANDOM REMINDER Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 26
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