Are Warnings on Police Training being Heeded?

	Extract from Hansard Legislative Council 25 October 2000

Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council		Parliament Index 2000 Spring Sitting Index Browse by Subject Search all Democrats material About the SA Parliament Hansard on line

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney- General, representing the Minister for Police, a question about police training.

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: In the Advertiser last Thursday (19 October) there was a story entitled `Police graduate with "inadequate training"'. The story quoted the President of the Police Association, Mr Peter Alexander, addressing an annual meeting of delegates the day before. According to Mr Alexander, recruits are graduating as police officers without high-speed driver training and with inadequate firearms training. He said that the lack of skills of probationary officers was putting pressure on other officers and meant that some young officers were restricted in emergency circumstances.

Concerns about the extent of initial police training are one thing but concerns have also been expressed recently about the extent and adequacy of training offered to or undertaken by existing or currently serving police officers. For instance, the Coroner, Wayne Chivell, recommended last month that there should be annual follow-ups to police training, incident management and operational safety, and that this should be `rigorously implemented'. In fact, he said:

His comments followed an incident following the tragic shooting death of a young mentally ill person. In 1999, last year, a report into the problem of failed drink driving prosecutions chaired by a former Supreme Court judge, Mr Derek Bollen, found that poor police training was responsible for drink drivers being let off in the courts. Mr Bollen found that very junior officers were carrying out drink driving tests with very little training. Further to that, in that particular account, the then president of the Law Society, Ms Lindy Powell, said the report was commissioned because the legal profession wanted to help the courts solve the problem of errors in failed prosecutions. She went on further to say:

So this means that in the past 12 months alone we have received warnings about insufficient police training from three reliable, impeccable sources-a former Supreme Court judge, the Coroner and now the Police Association. I must emphasise that none of those people has suggested that any police errors they identified are the result of inadequate effort, improper motives or lack of will. They did not wish to, and neither do I wish to, cast any aspersions on any member of SA Police, when I presume that every officer is doing his or her best with the training and the resources that the government supplies. However, the warnings about training are now so frequent and so consistent that I ask the minister, through the Attorney: to what extent are these warnings being heeded? What improvements are to be made to cadet training to take account of the warnings of the Police Association? What improvements are being made to in-service training to take account of the concerns expressed by former Supreme Court judge Mr Bollen and the Coroner?

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN (Attorney-General): My recollection is that both the Commissioner and the Minister for Police, Correctional Services and Emergency Services responded publicly to the assertions being made by the Police Association. It seemed that last week the Police Association was on a bit of a roll with a variety of criticisms. I think it had all its association delegates meeting in the one location and it was time to start flying the flag for the association.

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN: Good union practice, of course: try to hype it up so that you can satisfy your members that you are actually trying to do something.

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN: Well, I am not sure the Hon. Ron Roberts could give me any lesson on anything, but I will be listening with great interest during the afternoon.

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN: Well, I don't learn that lesson. I will refer the questions to my colleague in another place. Between us we will get some responses to the issues that have been raised and bring back a reply.

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: I have a supplementary question. Is the Attorney aware, in the same story that I quoted earlier about inadequate training, of the last paragraph: `Police Minister Robert Brokenshire said he had "concerns about some aspects of training"'?

The Hon. K.T. GRIFFIN: That does not necessarily equate to the same areas that the honourable member talked about in respect of the Police Association. Let's compare like with like and talk about the same wavelength. I do not think the question needs a response.