Borrows Chester: Policing Bill — First Reading 
Borrows Chester: Policing Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14358] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I rise to speak in respect of the Policing Bill and to give an indication that the National Party will be supporting the bill to go through its processes. It is good to be part of a process that is non-contentious as the operational workings of the police go beyond political intervention. That is the goal and that is the way in which they operate on almost all occasions. And that is what we should aspire to on every occasion. So it has been a pleasure to be part of a process that has been open and transparent through the consultation and investigative processes in putting together this bill. 
The bill recognises the need to reform legislation governing the provision of policing services in New Zealand. Although many of the principles underlying policing have remained the same over the past century or so—in fact they did not change a heck of a lot between the beginning of last century and the time the Police Act was written—our current policing legislation does not reflect the realities of modern policing. You see it is interesting to note that nowadays almost every part of core policing business in this country is carried out by people other than members of the New Zealand Police—in other words by private operators. That is the stage we have got to over time in this country. 
But it is good to note too that the principles that are fundamental to the Police Act have remained very strongly evident and are bolstered in the Policing Bill as it is before us. Those principles are described in the bill as: “principled effective and efficient policing services are a cornerstone of a free and democratic society under the rule of law:” and “effective policing relies on a wide measure of public support and confidence:”. This public support and confidence although it has been attacked and slightly eroded over recent times still remains fervently in the hearts of most New Zealanders who want to believe and do believe in the integrity of the New Zealand Police and of the men and women who make up the ranks of those police officers sworn and non-sworn. 
Policing services are provided under a national framework but also have local community focus and I think that one of the fundamentals of policing within New Zealand over the last hundred years or so is the local focus that many police have had. It has been a bit of a shame to note that maybe over the last 15 or 20 years after the corporatisation of the public sector we have tried to look at a one-size-fits-all model. As we go around the traps we come time and time again to those people who long to live in the days when the local policeman was the rule of law for the local community and for the various uniquenesses of the local community. 
I have to say that we cannot go back. I think back to 1958—well I do not think back to 1958 because I was a 1-year-old at the time—but from the stories that came out of the police about policing in those times and because of the fact that we had a piece of legislation even though it was hacked around a bit from time to time to make it fit we know that some weird and wonderful things happened back in those days that now I think fortunately are consigned to folklore. 
In 1958 the Taranaki police district had one police car. It was a 1955 DeSoto—Harry Duynhoven would probably be salivating if he were in a position to listen to this—and driven by the driver for the local district commander. If police had to attend a job they walked took a pushbike or caught a taxi. There was no such thing as a police car being available to policemen in the way it is now or even in the way it was 30 years ago. The police in Taranaki used to get a bit bored on a night shift—I do not know why Taranaki being the hub that it is of all sorts of activity—and they would disconnect the speedo cable from under the DeSoto and go for a drive around the mountain in the middle of the night. There was not much to do so they would call in at Rahotu Pungarehu Okato and all those little hamlets around the mountain as they were then. And they could hide the fact obviously that they had converted that police car by disconnecting the speedo cable but they could not hide the fact that they had used all the petrol. So they used to slip down to the local bus station and siphon some gas out of the buses and put it into the back of the police car. I have just recalled of course that there is no statute of limitations in crimes so maybe I should stop about there. 
But that was the country we were living in. A policeman attending a job had his whistle his baton and his notebook and that was about it. And that was the way it remained for a long time. I guess the thing I lament about the passing of those days is that policemen relied a lot more on their tongues and their ability to communicate than maybe they do today. When we look at their belts today we see that they look more like electricians with things for everything they do hanging off their belts. 
Back in those times too in 1958 it was 13 years after the end of the Second World War. Everyone’s father uncle or whoever had been involved in the Second World War and the country was fully involved in things like discipline respect and all that sort of thing that went with those times. But just 10 years down the track we had a change; we had a different involvement militarily. We had different views on whether we should have been involved and we had public protests—not for the first time—which were a real kickback on the way people reflected on authority. So the way in which citizens reflected on the police’s ability to deal with them changed significantly. 
We had police regulations which were many and varied and really strange but we were largely policing for instance by the Police Offences Act which was 1927 legislation. It was illegal in those days to have one’s tools of trade open to view on a Sunday. It was illegal to allow a stallion to service a mare within public view at all. Those provisions were all parts of Acts that the country was being policed under at that time. 
So we have come now to a place where through the 1960s 1970s 1980s and 1990s the job of the police has changed hugely and the expectations on police have changed hugely too. For instance with the introduction of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act in 1990 and then the merger between the Ministry of Transport and the police there was a completely different public expectation of the way in which the police would carry out their job. 
I recall the day when as a constable at Patea a father turned up to me and said “I have just caught my boy pinching things out of the house. I wonder whether you could chuck him in the cells for a couple of hours to teach him a lesson.” So I did. I put him in the cells for a couple of hours. It was totally illegal but I did it in the spirit of community policing and all the rest of it. I am relating this story for a particular reason and I will carry on with it. I put him in the cells. He was sitting in an ugly old wooden cell at the back of the Patea Police Station. It came to lunchtime so I went over to the house carved off a bit of cold roast poured over some cold gravy and cut a big slab of bread. I took it back to him and said “Here’s your lunch.” I went back about an hour or so later expecting to find it sitting on the bench. He had consumed the whole lot and asked whether there was any more. 
The reason why I relate this story is that in New Zealand in those days we tended to think—and some people who are living in the past tend to think we are still there—that we could treat people in that way and it would always be of benefit to them. What actually happened was that that kid was permanently hungry. His father was a criminal who beat the hell out of him constantly so that child learnt nothing from that style of policing. Those people who are constantly on at us to bring back the days when the good old bobby could put his size 11 boot up the backside of someone or give someone a clip around the ear and that would be the cure of all ills are absolutely ignorant unfortunately. We now know more about the reasons for offending and the reasons why people offend. I also believe we are more determined to do something practical and with integrity to prevent that. 
I believe that the introduction of this Policing Bill will take us to a new place in policing where people within the community will take more ownership of the way we police. The New Zealand Police itself which is a wonderful organisation in spite of the odd lapse and in spite of some members of the public taking smacks at its members on every occasion is an organisation that will be enhanced by this legislation. It will more truly reflect the New Zealand society in which we live and I look forward to the positive workings of this bill once it passes through its parliamentary process.