Quote:
Originally Posted by vic_orthdox
All I know is that the police union seems to have developed the ear of the newspapers in Victoria. The calls had been getting louder throughout her term, and it was shown that while there were increases in police numbers, there were less numbers in active patrol, something that has been seen to be needing rectifiation in recent times.
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Not at you but it's the same old argument, mate. Have been hearing it for years. Need more uniforms on the beat, etc. That's why we got in the UK coppers.
Problem is when the pressure gets too great, stuff like 'Frontline First' happens as did in WAPol; all coppers, regardless of how long they'd been shoved in an office, are suddenly uniformed again and patrolling some red light district tapping drunks and Ben Cousins on the shoulder. Consequence? All long-term and forward-planning operations were decimated and organised crime is not just out of control but almost totally off the radar because D's are out there writing up people for drunk/disorderly instead of chasing the bikies who are providing the product for the same peoples' night out. Cue predictable rise in complaints against Police too.
Honestly, I don't know exactly what the solution is but just putting more coppers in blue ain't it. There's a reason intel-led policing/corporate ops became so popular in police forces the world over; genuinely effective police work needs planning, not just action. Nixon appears to fail on both accounts here but this does not invalidate everything she did or the framework she did it in.