During the past decade Tasmanian cops have been given some extrordinary powers. A lot more money(over $170 Million) more resourses and more equiptment.  They have enormous powers that intrude on personal freedoms in ways that make a mockery of the word. They can order you to leave an area even though you have committed no offence. They can search your Home,car or person without getting a search warrant from a magistrate. They can arrest a person without corroborative evidence. They can give evidence in courts under certain acts without you knowing what that evidence is. They can ignore the tests of "Reasonableness" and most often do.They can do all this without fear of recrimination.

This weekend Bloggers yours truly had occasion to feel the full brunt of the arrogance of Tasmania Police. Cockyness and arrogance can only exist when no adequate scrutiny mechanisms are in place. The past decade of disappearing individual rights due to the exagerated terrorist  nonsence allowed erroneous new laws to be pushed through parliaments. Outrgeous laws pushed down our throats by an ever increasing paranoid police service. The 'might is right' policies of the past decade have increased prison populations even though the commonwealth statisticians data shows crime has decreased.It currently costs you the taxpayer $136,000 dollars per year to  fund one operational cop.. That is a staggering amount of money by any accounting.

Front line cops are poorly trained(marching drill is still on the curriculum) poorly supervised, and poorly resoursed. The confrontation between cops and members of the public from the outset is uneven. With all power  in the hands of the cop, opening statements in any disagreement or grievance come from one party with absolute power and the  other party with absolutely no power in any given situation. The power and threat of arrest is a great  incentive not to argue with the person that can deprive you of your liberty on SUSPICION that you might commit an offence. This very subjective definition is an open invitation to abuse power and authority.

Of course there are rotten apples in the barrel, but there are very poor mechanisms in place to weed out the rotten apples. Instead the facade of ethical standards, high moral conduct, and professional code of conduct  are the spin of Police Management. This head in sand attitude along with their usual straw polls each year make soft easy reading for successive lame duck Ministers. Any society needs an effective police service, but in a democratic society that power has to be balanced with total transparency and accountability. Any abuses must be investigated thououghly and not by police investigating themselves as is still the case in Tasmania. In 2009 this is totally unacceptable.

Mistrust of police is rife in our community. This is completely unacceptable and moving forward if Government does not address these issues of full transparency then mistrust will only continue to rise.

Now to my little tale::: On Saturday night after an argument with staff at the local Video Ezy Store, I refused to leave until staff gave me a contact phone number for the owner of  the business. The Police were called which did not phase me in the least. What did annoy me was what happened subsequent to their arrival on the scene. I was now on my cell phone talking to my family  and the two attending cops were getting a briefing from one party ie. Video store staff(2 eighteen year olds lads with limited business skills). by any measure applied  that represents only 50% of an investigation,enquiry,story call it what you like . 50% is not policing. 50% is only ever HALF.

Next I walked out of the Video Ezy Store in New Town and was standing on private property owned by Centro not Video Ezy. The larger Cop , Constable 2728(refused to give name citing yet more eroneous policy) interjected and while speaking on my phone hijacked the conversation by standing very close to me and saying words to the effect......"are you going to talk on the phone or talk to me" Rude, intimidating, and threatening. I bet London to a brick he would not talk to  a suited businessman in the  same manner or indeed circumstance. Now bagfans we have read the Police Manual and SOP's and can assure readers this IS NOT  STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE..

Not by a long stretch of the most vivid  imagination is this type of behaviour sanctioned in any document or in any right thinking persons mind. Respect, courtesy and co-operation is the benchmark for an opening conversation. If  a member of the public wants to argue with a cop on the spot over any issue and in a lawful manner  that citizen should NEVER be disuaded from so doing by the ever present threat of arrest and deprivation of liberty . This threat is always present as a cop does not have to demonsrate reasonableness to any degree. The cop is given crystal ball gazing powers similar to Supermans X Ray Vision by our Legislators.....

I digress however and will try to proceed with dispassionate calm. Officer No Name 2728 is a very large guy 6ft + some , bald shaved head, and weighing in at around 100+ kilos.  At first I thought  he had jumped off the cover of a B grade Bruce Willis video inside the store.. He moved into my private space for no particular reason,no doubt in line with what Cops describe in their manual as "BODY LANGUAGE JUDO" . Point being, I had not yet spoken a word to him and most importantly I had Committed NO OFFENCE. NO OFFENCE.(twice for the conservative forces). He then ordered me not to return to Video Ezy For 8 hours .  I had no intention of so doing and remember I had walked out of the Video Ezy Store. Call me old fashioned, but I still hold the view if a business is too bumb to get my dollars into their cash register the opposition business usually  is not so dumb....

Now on the drive home I determined to report this incident to the Duty Inspector. On night duty there is only one inspector on the watch so police service management is always at its weakest  in the night time(when most crimes are committed). Did I say SERVICE? Well try for yourselves bloggers on the night shift  accountability is sometimes left to constables acting on higher duties pay as seargents. Only in this organisation does this terrible waste of tax dollars occur.

The attitude starts as soon as you start talking to a  non civillian staff member. I spoke to a constable Nelson,after requesting the Inspector on duty and then the Seargent as I was told the Inspector was too busy. Constable Nelson told me she was the acting Seargent. I enquired if I should address her as acting seargent or constable. Constable Nelson replied that I could call her whatever I liked in curt  retort. Then I made a FATAL error..I tried to be humourous and friendly.. I said, as my dear departed dad always said "As long as I don't call you late for supper Ay???. Now what she said next  defies Logic, intelligence and totally reflects the humourless inflexible,recalcitrant attitude still prevailing within the structure! constable Nelson Said...."If you call me that  I'll hang up on you" disbelieving what I was hearing, I said What? If I call you Late for Supper"....K.L.U.N.K the phone went dead...Lucky I was not trying to report a murder!!!!

Fair dinkum readers ,You could  have knocked me down with  a feather. Stunned,shocked and amazed I couldn't help but think WHO put this individual in charge of a police radio room?? Her actions in any other scenario could have had life threatening  dire consequences. Unprofessional behaviour from the team leader surely has a serious negative rub off effect for other staff members manning the police phones. Ivan Dean MLC on the very same day was lauding Tas Police for its cultural paradigm shift under Acting commissioner Darren Hine. Well Tasmailbag repudiates Mr.Deans claims prefering to call his comments  political and opportunistic for the purpose of putting the boot into his old nemesis Jack Johnston.

I then called back the police switchboard and told them to relay to the duty Inspecor that I would be following this matter up with the Minister of Plolice if he was unwilling to call me back. Within 15 minutes Inspector Bond was on the phone to listen to my grievance. I must say he was more  sophisticated in his understanding of my complaint but also was less forth coming with a mutual resolution. This clearly leaves me with little option. My option being to activate further enquiries at more financial cost to the community come Monday.

This jurasic organisation is unchanging, is arrogant,is unmindful of who stakeholders are. It is also plagued with internal strife,is not doing too well  in serious case solving,and is beset with problems in dealing with the lower socio-economic disenfranchised groups within our community. They are a community service, and should step back from making judgements. Thats why we have courts. If Tasmania Police is seriously trying to foster community harmony they should understand that EVERYONE BELONGS., and everyone is entitled to be treated fairly, ethically, and with professional courtesy....As they stand now ,it is still the same as it was, and any pretence of change is just more window dressing...........We need a new commissioner from outside Tasmania if the current management  cannot face up to the many problems confronting the organisation..

footnote: Acosta at Video Ezy Glenorchy had no problem slipping my money into his cash register .