KEY POINTS:
Police officers say the goodwill that gets them out of bed in the middle of the night or sees them come into the office on their day off will eventually run out if the organisation doesn't make changes.
The comments follow the release of findings from a Gallup
survey which show that almost a quarter of the country's police officers are unhappy in their job, and another two-thirds are merely going through the motions.
A quarter of the total New Zealand working population are happy in their job, compared with 13 per cent of police staff.
Police Association president Greg O'Connor said those findings showed that staff goodwill was at risk and that threatened the police's ability to function as an effective organisation.
"Police effectiveness depends enormously on the goodwill of staff willingness to go the extra mile, to work the extra hours, to come in on days off or after hours, having just worked a long shift, to cover for colleagues," he said. "This survey basically shows police don't feel their employer is returning that goodwill."
Police chiefs have said they will implement measures to try to address three key problems areas that were identified in the survey, but were unlikely to find a quick fix.
Mr O'Connor said for those measures to be effective they would have to be involved in decision-making at all levels.
"That means in shift-rostering decisions, HR decisions, resourcing decisions and decisions as to where to allocate new staff to best support their overworked colleagues."
Don Jaine, director of consultant management company Swann Group, said it was difficult to compare the level of police engagement with other organisations as the jobs were so different.
"You have to be careful not to take it out of context - you have to keep it in context as an environment that has got a huge amount of external stress applied to it.
"They don't know from one minute to the next if there is going to be a murder or accident or a bomb scare - the sort of unpredictability of the environment they work in has got to be factored into what they do."
National Party police spokesman Chester Borrows urged the Government to move urgently to address the "crisis of confidence" in the police, saying it had ignored cries for help from frontline staff.
Mr Borrows also criticised Police Minister Annette King for saying it wasn't her place to comment on the survey findings.
"If she's not responsible for morale in the organisation for which she is minister, then what is she responsible for?"
Ms King's press secretary, John Harvey, said the minister was not commenting on the survey in any detail as it was an operational matter.
However, responding to Mr Borrows' statement about what she was responsible for as a minister, Mr Harvey said: "She's responsible for getting the funding for 1000 new frontline police, she's responsible for getting funding for 250 more non-sworn police, she's responsible for putting through capital budgets which have seen more than 30 new police stations open since this Labour Government came power and she's responsible for getting new equipment for the police force."
DETECTIVES `WAIT AND SEE' WHAT BOSSES PLAN
Detectives are in a "wait and see" mode after promises from police top brass that there are plans to improve morale.
A senior CIB member said the problems - many of which were highlighted in the Gallup survey released to the Herald this week - could not be resolved overnight.
The survey found that only 6 per cent of CIB members were happy in their jobs, while more than a quarter were so unhappy that they shared their unhappiness with colleagues.
Many officers felt being in the CIB was being on the "outer" of the administration's focus these days.
"There's certainly been a change of focus and I think the CIB have felt they [management] have gone in a different direction and the CIB are just tolerated."
Asked if morale was low, he said: "I think there is a large group that is just plodding along because they just go from one serious crime to another and it's almost never-ending for them.
"They would rather get on and do the basic work than [go] from one crisis to the next."
The officer, from the Auckland region, said recognition from managers was nice - something the survey highlighted as needing to happen more often - but he did not feel most CIB staff were looking for praise.
Staffing levels were a problem, especially when exhausted detectives were called in to help other districts.
"It's just constant. They are moved around, they want to carry on their work in their own area and the next minute they are being dragged off some inquiry but the files are still sitting on their own desk," the officer said.
Complaints from within had been around, but the Gallup survey was probably enough for them to be finally listened to properly.
"At least they have recognised there is a problem now, and certainly the noise that is coming out is that they want to do something to fix it."
