Putting the service into policing

THE POLICE Commissioner was clear, in a release issued on Friday, that poor customer service should not be a defining characteristic of the Police Service (TTPS).

Its motto, “To protect and serve,” now rings hollow as a bitter irony to victims of crime who must face the reality of a TTPS unable to either protect or as a damning recording of a surly police response to a reported crime suggested this week to serve.

Erla Harewood-Christopher did not, in the release, name the officer responsible for the unacceptably laissez-faire and dismissive exchange with a homeowner after a home robbery. But consigning the matter to another internal disciplinary inquiry hardly addresses the problem. What the commissioner actually heard was a representative excerpt from an unacceptable number of careless police responses to public suffering that have triggered a litany of complaints.

It's a matter that has become so pervasive that the occasional shout-out to an officer who does their job with dignity and compassion quickly becomes something of a social media event.

It's simply not enough to promise that "Every effort will be made to prevent a recurrence of such an incident." The question is how that change will be effected.

This week a mother and daughter were murdered because of a mismanaged protection order, leaving the TTPS positioned as both ineffective and rude. This isn't a problem that will be solved by punishing the occasional officer who gets caught out dragging the police star; it's a problem that must be fixed through senior leadership insistence on respect for citizens, particularly when they are in distress.

Insisting on senior ownership of responsibility for station conduct with the public is only a start, and must be reinforced by continuous monitoring and training of officers in dealing with a unique public engagement that's inevitably richly seasoned by strong emotional responses, fear, anger and hair-trigger violence, to name but a few.

The TTPS website has a customer feedback form. Is the public aware of this option for reporting poor customer experiences with officers? Does it occupy a prominent place for visitors to the website? Are submissions analysed and investigated? Is a summary of complaints available to the public to offer a wider understanding of the specific failings of police interactions?

A public acknowledgement of aggregate customer experience with the police, both positive and negative, is a first step to a common understanding of the issues the service faces. It lets officers know where they are failing their customers and strengthens customer confidence that the service is aware and engaged with its weaknesses.

Internal review is important, but public awareness of and engagement with the TTPS customer service policy will form the basis of a common understanding of the problem.