Up hill, down dale – for us

I’ve got to get this in now. We have elections coming up for a new Police Association president. Our current “El Presidente” is calling it time, and moving onto… nope, don’t know. Maybe he could get into the second-hand Police uniform business. He could earn a bloody fortune! Seriously though, I’d like you to take a minute to think about what our current president has done for us, the lengths he’s gone to and the time he has dedicated to ensuring we are all treated fairly. It is a 24/7 job and not for the fainthearted. So, if you think you’re good enough, I hope you put in a nomination for the job. I thought really hard about it for 2.5 seconds – not me, no sir. But I know we do have someone out there who will do us proud, just like the one we have for now.

I'm over time glitches

July 1 clicked over into a new world of paid overtime. It was also the date we started having “glitches” in the system. I thought we trialled it for months… couldn’t we have picked up the issues then? Or is that now that it concerns real money, we’re all getting emails saying our overtime isn’t approved, or the system won't recognise the fact that most of the overtime after, say a night or swing shift, is actually the next day in the calendar? We have these really smart people designing these things, and we still can’t get it right. It’s just painful.

A split decision

Speaking of glitches, the saga of our missing trousers, shirts and everything else needed to do our jobs continues. The supply issue from Australia is still a shambles. Someone, please sort it out. Also, tell me, why did we end up with a uniform supplier in another country, and why pay the extra dollars for what appears to be substandard service? We have members borrowing uniforms just to do their shift. Be careful, team, especially when bending over. Don’t split your pants, you may not get any more any time soon.

Home-field advantage?

Auckland kicked off its very own Police College recently. Times have definitely changed with recruits living at home and commuting to and from their college of knowledge every day. I hope it all works out, but I just can’t shrug off the feeling that those recruits will all miss an important part of learning the trade, the part you get from living at Police College, wearing the uniform – if you can get your hands on one – that immersion into becoming a police officer. I know it’s a different generation, and it’s just my view… I truly wish them all well.

PHPF out of the frame

Farewell Police High Performance Framework – PHPF as we know it. The licence to use this has expired, and I'm pretty sure there were some shouts of joy after the announcement. I agree that every organisation like ours needs a system to measure our personal and collective performance, but we were locked into an overcomplicated framework that we grew to dislike. We went through it every year, mechanically. It was like emptying the dishwasher, never getting excited about it, but it had to be done. I just want my boss to tell me if I am doing a good job and, if not, what to improve on. Hopefully, its replacement will be a little more natural and not too “New Age”. I wonder if PHPF will turn up in a certain Australian state which has a new commissioner.