POLICE SCANDALS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 533, 14 June 1909, Page 5

POLICE SCANDALS.

Sir,—Following upon the recent assault and some other incidents to ' which allusion, is made further on, the fact that a constable in uniform, and on bis beat, was found on Saturday evening last to be so intoxicated aa to be.unfit for duty, raises the question whether there should not bo an inquiry into the local police administration. It is pretty evident that something must be wrong with the discipline of the force. I wonld like, to refer to some instances which aro very widely known to, and much . discussed by, the public. Not long ago, some young men in good social position had been spending the evening with friends on the Terrace. On their way home, having to walk owing to the teams having stopped running, they amused themselves with a song or two to lighten the weary way. For this simple thing they were chased by a-police-man, whom.they very easily out-ran, for the reason that the said policeman was most indubitably the worse for liquor. Again, some youthful footballers recently, on a Saturday evening, fighting the days battlo over again, as they will, and arguing as to questions of play, indulged in some "scrum" practice by way of an example to the line of argument pursued. A constable came up, knocked the youngsters violently about, and arrested one of them for being drunk. At the station this young follow demanded the attendance of a medical man to prove that he was not drunk. . The request was refused. Yet this young man was quite within his rights, and the police wholly in the wrong in declining to accede to his request. • Then, again, was the case the other day of some young clerks outside an oyster saloon, who were assaulted by a constable. They at once went to v the central police station and 'aid a complaint,, but were refused a hearing, and ordered to come the licxt day. The young fellows, whose sobriety the constable had impugned, went off to the Mount Cook Police Station, and there-laid a complaint, being 'treated with every courtesy by the sergeant in charge. Thjjse young men were not intoxicated, though they may have bad a glass or two. . By what right did this constable assault them, and, when his action was made known to ' headquarters; what,' if any, ~ punishment did ho receive? The question of the character of our poii-/e constables is one of the most important j their powers are so large, their responsibilities so great, and the public .trust and confidence necessarily placed in them so general. There is, however,, only two grounds for the belief that many of the constables on night-duty go on their beats after.-an afternoon's drinking, about the hotels -in plain clothes, quite unfit for the calm,'deliberate judgment'and' action,which should characterise the absolutely sober guardian of tho peace. These men manage somehow to pass muster'at the station; but the effects of their drinking, aided, doubtless, by further drinking while on duty, soon render them violent in their conduct, arifitrary in their manner and demeanour, andwtally unfit to be entrusted with the liberty of His Majesty's lieges, or the safety of their property. A wrong class of men is getting into the force; discipline must be lax; the whole position calls for inquiry at onoe.—l am, eta, ' ■ , ';' y ■ ' -■ ~'. CITIZEN. June 7.■'•' •■ ■ ■ i .•.'■■■'■••■'. ■'