The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 32, 7 February 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1877.

Police duties are of two very different kinds, which, may be distinguished as detective and military. The former implies, not only the bringing of criminals to justice, but the prevention of crime by the exercise of a proper surveillance over suspicious characters. In short, the detective functions consist m watching and discovering such characters both before and after they have become criminals. In exercising this function the peace officer sometimes needs the aid of the military, but as a rule he can dispense with that aid m a well-ordered community. Now, to our thinking, it is most expedient that things which differ so widely as these two functions — the detective and the military — should be kept distinct. In proportion as we amalgamate them, or attempt to do so, we shall have both of them inefficiently performed. To be a good soldier is one thing, to be a good, detective is another and a widely different thing, and very rarely can these two characters be combined m the same person without injury to both. This is tacitly admitted by the fact that we have organised a force distinct alike from the police and the military, and called " detective " par excellence. The constitution of such a force is, we say, tantamount to an admission that the quasi-military and semi-detective body known as the ordinary police force, is not capable of answering the end for which it was intended. That end is the detection and punishment of crime, and if the ordinary police were deemed a sufficient means to it, there would be no recognised necessity for supplementing that force, so to speak, by a detective police properly so-called. But the

fact that there is such necessity j proves, m our opinion, that the ordinary police force is regarded as a failure so far as detecive duties are concerned. It is an attempt to combine incompatible thhgs — military and civil duties — andthe sooner this attempt is abandoned, and our police made to consist c£ a purely military and a purely cxdl department, each confined to its iwn sphere of action, the better it vill be for both as well as for the piblic interests. Whether this ie what the Government actually ontemplate does not very plainly appear. In some quarters the impression seems to be that it is not — thtt what the Government intend to dc is simply to amalgamate the Polio with the Armed Constabulary, anl to make the latter force perform the duties which have hitherto devolved upon the former. The Wellington ' Argus,' for instance, m a recent :ssue, has a leader on this subject, condemning the Government scheme as injudicious, on the ground, thatit attempts to do what we have just bten arguing against — constitute a " mongrel force," which, as the ' Argus ' predicts, will be " useful neither m peace nor war." We would fain indulge the hope that, if such be the intention of Government, they will be induced to changs their mind and, instead of perpetuating what we must look upon a3 an abuse, introduce a reform by perfecting the detective force, abolishing the ordinary police, and carefully preserving the purely military character of the armed constabulary. The majority of the police force consists of men who would make excellent soldiers but are not fit for police duties of the detective kind ; and by enrolling these m the ranks of the armed constabulary the Government would place them m their true position. On the other hand, there are many members of the police force who would make very efficient detectives, and are far more suited to that line of duty than to a soldier's life. Economy and efficiency would be consulted m such an arrangement as this. There would be no addition to the proposed police force and its military efficiency would be maintained, while, by the more judicious division of labour, the detective duties would be better performed. At present the duty of a military sentry — that of keeping guard m the streets — is assigned m many cases to men whose tastes and aptitude are not military, and who would feel more at home and prove far more efficient if they were relieved of every semblance of military functions, and embodied m a purely civil corps whose duties should be of a detective character.