POLICE MORALE
It has been reported that the morale of the Police is at an all-time low. Contact with serving members by the CAA confirms the low morale issue; however, if the morale issue is to be addressed, it will not be solved by pay increases; that is not a silver morale bullet; the problem will still exist.
To understand the issues at play better, the Hawthorne Experiment sets out the issues well.
“The studies concluded that tangible motivators such as monetary incentives and good working conditions are generally less important in improving employee productivity than intangible motivators such as meeting individuals’ desire to belong to a group and be included in decision making and work.”
https://www.google.com/search?q=Thw+Hawthorn+experiment&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU710AU711&oq=Thw+
Although we strongly support the need to increase Police salaries, the underlying causes of low morale must be urgently addressed.
Whether a four-day week or an extra 15 minutes per shift, any move to decrease productivity has a knock-on effect, reducing staff availability and aggravating morale by increasing the load on on-duty members.
Looking from outside the force, the central issue seems to be not how many Police are in the organisation but how they are used and, importantly, how often good work is acknowledged.
It is evident that a significant shift in the current approach to policing is needed.
Around 2010, the force transitioned from a proactive force engaging with the community to a predominantly reactionary force, using arrests as a measure of success.
This shift in approach has clearly not served Victoria well. It has contributed, among other factors, to the increase in crime, particularly among juveniles.
Over fourteen years, which included in 2016, prophetic warnings from the CAA of a crime tsunami, particularly a youth crime tsunami, successive administrations have ignored or have been incapable of heeding our advice.
It is no wonder that morale is low with front-line staff so stretched as to make a very rewarding job into a drudgery with job satisfaction, a major job morale issue, almost eliminated.
No matter what the excuses, the reality is the problem must be shared amongst the force executive for poor leadership, and they should face the brunt of criticism.
The CAA believes that although a lot more can be done to address the issue, the current Chief Commissioner, Shane Patton, has at least tried to address some of the anomalies in management strategies and applications. However, it does appear that he is facing headwinds from a number of senior officers who have perhaps a Neanderthal inclination to Policing; a clean-out is absolutely overdue.
The morale problem must be adequately exposed so it can be addressed; to do that, an examination of the issues must be undertaken. Whether internal or external, it has little consequence as long as the process is totally transparent and capable of taking sworn evidence.
Some of the issues that must be examined are’.
- Force discipline – Policing is or should be a disciplined force given its dangerous function. Supervisors in the field and elsewhere must be respected and trained and, collectively, insist on discipline from their subordinates; being their best friend doesn’t cut it when a situation turns to muck. There are no problems with being friends off duty, but that relationship must change once on duty.
- Allocation of resources – There is something dramatically wrong with the management function when some Police stations can have high numbers of Police beavering away on computers. In contrast, neighbouring communities have no police to keep their local station open.
- Situational awareness – as often seen in the media, apart from police engaged in an incident, there always appear to be many police acting as onlookers. While it is not wrong to have the backs of the police directly involved, nobody has the backs of all the police audience to the action. This is dangerous and exposes the Police to unreasonable danger. The lack of supervision or poorly trained supervisors at incidents is a major failure.
- Organisational review/audit – there does not appear to be an effective review and audit process for the operations and management of resources within VicPol. This is a grave anomaly, and problems cannot be routinely identified and addressed, feeding into the declining morale problem.
Other issues need addressing; however, the most important is the Review as the most efficient path to not only lifting morale but also supporting the Chief Commissioner and bringing Victoria Police up to best practice standard of a modern police force.