GORDON LIGHTFOOT | National
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Palmerston North-based frontline officer Sam Keane is trying his best to stay focused today, after some heinous reports of top tier police corruption came out this week.
The scandal surrounding Jevon McSkimming and the reported mishandling of criminal complaints by former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has rattled the organisation Sam signed up to. Senior officers have been accused of influencing investigations, downgrading complaints and prioritising career-protection over justice.
The relatively new police constable meanwhile believes that his bosses haven’t made things easy for police officers on the ground to uphold the law.
“Hey look I’m out here trying to catch criminals and make the public feel safe and secure and all I’ll say is it would be really good if the people at the top weren’t such shit humans,” said the 25 year old as he got ready to start his day.
“Would also be great if they didn’t break the law and try to cover for freaky weirdos like ol pedo Jevon.”
Keane says it would also be a lot easier for him to do his job if people were able to have a bit of trust in the police. “Yeah well I’ll just keep my head down and do my best day by day, but look it’d be good if we could have a deputy commissioner who doesn’t watch disgusting illegal pornography on his work laptop. A big ask, I know, but I think the public would really appreciate it.”
The young officer says the scandal has made even the most routine parts of his job feel awkward.
“You walk up to someone’s front door, and before you can even say hello they’re like, ‘Ooh, here comes one of Jevon’s mates, how’s the hard drive?’ and you just have to smile and pretend the organisation you work for isn’t rotten to its core.”
Despite all the noise coming from the upper ranks, Keane insists most boots-on-the-ground officers are still trying to do right by the public.
“We’re just normal people doing a hard job. I didn’t join the police so I could try and defend the freaks and geeks on the top floor. I joined to help people. It’d be nice if the bosses could stop making my job harder by being a pack of sick c***s.”
He shrugged, clipped on his radio, and headed for the patrol car.
“It’s funny, because people used to say things like ‘why don’t you catch some real criminals’, when actually a lot of them work at the police!”
More to come.
