A bad look for the thin blue line

Talk about a case of bad timing. There will likely be a few furrowed brows at police headquarters this week, after a senior police officer was snapped apparently sending a text message while driving.

The officer, believed to be a shift commander based at the Auckland Central station, was photographed by a motorist who was behind the police car.

For the police, this isn't a good look, and it's even worse timing.

It comes as the two-year anniversary of the ban on using cellphones in vehicles approaches, and in the same week as it was revealed that Auckland police had enforced the ban much more rigorously than anywhere else in the country.

A renewed nationwide clampdown is to be launched in November.

If we're honest, probably more than a few of us have sent the occasional text while behind the wheel. Plenty of people will have struggled to break the habit once the law came into place in 2009.

No one expects the thin blue line to be perfect - in fact, several high-profile court cases in recent years have proven them to be anything but.

Nevertheless, in order to avoid accusations of hypocrisy, those who uphold the law must themselves be seen to abide by it at all times. Perception is everything.

There may, of course, be a perfectly reasonable explanation - police can use their cellphones while driving if it is deemed to be operationally necessary.

The onus will now fall on the officer in question to prove that was the case when he was photographed.

But the fact that police have confirmed the officer will have to answer questions from his supervisor when he is next on duty is an indication of the seriousness with which this is being viewed.

Despite our horrendous road toll, there seems to be a public level of antipathy towards road regulations - the rules surrounding text messaging while driving are largely viewed in the same sceptical light as the actions of police officers who issue speeding tickets.

Having a senior police officer photographed potentially flouting the cellphone law will do nothing to help remedy this particularly dangerous attitude.

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