Dear Editor, The Police Department continues to offer totally inadequate salaries to the new recruits and I suspect all their existing frontline Police are also in the same position. They need to be paid at least $14 to $15 per hour.

Pay them what the job is worth and it is easily worth this amount. Labourers can earn this sort of money and with no shift work and no risk of physical confrontation.

Norman George’s offer to act as an unpaid consultant should be gratefully accepted along with other ex-Commissioners and ex-Senior Police with front line experience willing to share their knowledge. Their knowledge of how to handle things in a more “local way” will be very valuable and in a lot of cases will mean a lot less cases going before the Court. We don’t need to follow Police laws that are designed for NZ conditions.

The community policing needs to be actively promoted in consultation with the local MPs. This should result in a dramatic reduction of youth crime going before the court. The young offender and his parents can be spoken to and dealt with in the appropriate manner as not all cases are the same.

Most young offenders treat the frequent warnings as a joke. When they are still young this provides the best opportunity to keep them from a life of crime.

Regards

Don Carlaw