PUBLICANS AND POLICE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 924, 11 June 1877, Page 3

PUBLICANS AND POLICE.

[From the Melbourne Argus.']

Hitherto the duty of enforcing the Sunday trading clause of the new Licensing Act lias devolved upon the police. Every Sunday since the Act came into force a number of constables have been told off for the special purpose of detecting and prosecuting offending publicans. This has had an injurious effect upon the force in two ways. The publicans, owing to their position in the community, are very frequently in possession of information of great value to the authorities. They are, in fact, one of the principal and most reliable channels of information upon which the police depend when prosecuting inquiries. In the past they have always been ready to assist the police in this way, and while evil-doers suffered thereby, the general community was benefitted. The special Sunday duty imposed upon the police has, however, compelled them to take up an invidious and hostile position towards the publicans, and the natural result is that the sympathy of the latter is alienated, and their valuable assistance in the matter of inquiries forfeited. It is not to be much wondered at, then, if under s uch altered circumstances the police in the performance of their ordinary but more important duties are not so much facilitated by the publicans as was formerly the case. Moreover, the operation of the Sunday trading clause lias also a pernicious effect with regard to the moral condition of the force. The degradation to which constables are subjected in having to act as common informers causes them to lose their self-respect, as also the esteem of the more fortunate members of the force and of the community at large. Thus, by having to carry an absurd law into effect, the efficiency of the police force is impaired and the standard of its morale is being lowered. Evidently a continuance of this state of matters is not desirable. The 95th clause of the Act provides for the appointment of inspectors, whose duty it shall be “ to enforce and superintend the carrying out of this Act in every respect.” These inspectors have just been appointed, and it is therefore to be now hoped that the Chief Commissioner of Police will see the necessity of at once relieving his men from the odious duty they have been performing during the past five months. Until the law prohibiting the opening of publichouses on Sundays is repealed, tliis matter should he left entirely in the hands of the special inspectors referred to; and of course the police could not be allowed to act under the directions of these inspectors, for disorganisation in the force would bo the result of a divided a ul hority.