President's Column - Loose lips sink ships
“It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about prominent people or even criminals, information we receive as part of our job, especially that obtained using our coercive powers, should be kept to ourselves until someone, usually the court, decides otherwise.”
Julius Caesar once said “I love treason but I hate a traitor”. There have been many variations since, applied to different historical settings.
The modern equivalent, and relevant to police, is the media’s view of people who leak information to them.
They love the information but have nothing but contempt for those who betray their employer, work colleagues, family or even mates by supplying that information.
I was reminded of that when I read that someone had rung a TV station and told them about All Blacks coach Graham Henry being one of several speeding drivers stopped in Auckland and not ticketed, the reason for which turned out to be perfectly explicable.
(A subsequent New Zealand Herald editorial outlined the need for the public to be able to know with certainty that anyone purporting to be a police officer has the full powers and capability of a police officer; a very pertinent point given the creation of the Authorised Officer role).
It is clear the leak was not from the officer involved, who was doing his job.
It was in all likelihood someone who became aware through being present at a debrief or overheard an in-house conversation.
Whoever it was, it was simply unprofessional, and treacherous.
Whether the motivation was to have a go at Henry, or the officer involved, or even the hierarchy, the net result was yet another opportunity for our detractors to have a go at police.
Perversely, we did deserve criticism, but not for having someone unqualified to issue tickets operating speed equipment; we deserved to be criticised for leaking the information in the first place.
Not surprisingly, the media didn’t think so!
It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about prominent people or even criminals, information we receive as part of our job, especially that obtained using our coercive powers, should be kept to ourselves until someone, usually the court, decides otherwise.
We get frustrated enough at the information we are forced to disclose to lawyers, especially around witness details.
The last thing we need to do is to be providing more, to anyone.
I personally think that the rules around who we can check on NIA (National Intelligence Application), in order to keep ourselves safe as police officers, are too restrictive.
They are decreed by those who don’t understand the vulnerability of being a police officer exposed to inappropriate contacts.
Police, especially in smaller communities, are very visible and quickly end up on the front pages if involved in conflict of any type.
It behoves us then to be absolutely discreet and professional with any information we do come by, in order to ensure we are trusted to access what we need to reduce our vulnerability.
And of course, understand that however effusive a grateful reporter may be when receiving information, they hold Caesar’s contempt for the source.
