Karen Matthews Article in the Geelong Advertiser
THE latest news on the state government’s plan to further erode Victoria Police powers by decriminalising drunkenness looks set to make a tough job even tougher.
Combine that with the current campaign to boost dwindling police numbers by targeting potential recruits who failed entry first time round and you have to ask, why would anyone bother?
At any rate, changes expected later this year will mean police no longer handle drunks.
Instead officers will become glorified taxi drivers, transporting drunks, with their permission of course, either to their homes or places called “sobering up” centres.
And if the drunk refuses?
Well, they haven’t figured that one out yet.
Instead of locking drunks in cells to sober up and protect them from themselves and the rest of the community, the focus of responsibility will be transferred onto Victoria’s already buckling-at-the-knees ambulance service and outreach workers.
It seems laws banning public drunkenness were scrapped on the recommendation of a government panel into the 2017 death of an Aboriginal woman in custody.
It also recommended “police should be the last resort with high-level cases taken to hospital”.
So in other words, come November and our already undermanned and overworked paramedics and hospital medical staff will be expected to, not just battle to save lives and treat the seriously ill and injured, but also deal with the voluntary “wasted” as well.
The sad reality is of course, that for every amiable drunk on the planet, there are a hundred more who are aggressive, belligerent, abusive and dangerous, both to themselves and others.
And reports over the years of many who have died through personal actions they would never have undertaken when sober, is the heartbreaking truth in all this.
Like the young man so drunk he curled up in the middle of a road, went to sleep and never woke again after being fatally struck by a car.
A few hours in a police cell would have saved his life.
According to Victoria Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt, there are thousands of cases each year in which police intervention is required and cutting their powers, against the advice of an expert reference group, is the wrong move.
He said, that under new changes, police would only respond once a crime was committed, by which time, it would be too late.
Sergeant Gatt said “without question” the architects of the reform had failed to grasp the complexity of issues when people did not consent and queried how ambulance officers would shoulder the burden and deal with a person who said “no”.
Reality is, they would have to let them go.
And then what?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The official role of Victoria Police is to serve the community, uphold the law and promote a safe, secure and orderly society.
I’d have thought a little thing called “prevention” might also play a significant part in achieving all of the above.
As for spending a few hours sobering up in a police cell.
That, my friends, is far more likely to have a safer outcome than not.
