Simon Power
National Party Law & Order Spokesman

9 November 2005

Minister should look at police red tape

National’s Law & Order spokesman, Simon Power, says the Police Minister should ask for an investigation into form-filling in the police department with a view to ensuring officers spend as much time as possible fighting crime.

He is commenting on police figures that show nearly 18,000 timesheets in October were not filled in, compared with 11,000 in September.

“Clearly, police don’t have enough time to fill in timesheets so the present system is not working.

“Minister Annette King said she was prepared to listen to new ideas, so perhaps she should be looking for a better way of police recording their time so more are on the streets for longer.

“Recording what police do with their time is essential but there must be ways that don’t keep them bogged down behind a desk,” Mr Power says.

“Perhaps incident reports can be used to give a clear indication of where police time is spent.”

ENDS

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