A conversation last week with a former police officer set me thinking. We were talking about the NZ police today & his comments echoed those of current long serving police officers. Techniques might of changed but in reality the basics of how to police never change. But he is always getting told by young officers he doesn't understand policing today.
Ten years ago it was normal for police to encourage you to report suspicious activity & responded to them as not only did it impact on crime, even if the reported activity wasn't as suspicious as first reported it put the police in the area & also had an impact on crime.
Compare that to today where a call to report suspicious activity more often than not you are treated as the criminal with the grilling you get on the phone & then it is unlikely a patrol will show up.
That is not the police on the beats fault as they are under resourced & undermanned, but there is also a focus on getting arrests as opposed to impacting on crime from above when talking to experienced officers.
Not helping their cause though is the corruption that is rife amongst New Zealand bureaucrats which means their favourite method of dealing with issues is do nothing.
My recent experiences with bureaucrats which came to a head in the last week show why they police have to deal with so many upset people.
Not to mention security guards who also due to the low wages in the NZ Security Industry are likely to be having to deal with some of those departments in their own life.
The old bureaucrats trick of focussing on a red herring, to the side of the real issues, is to the fore.
Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform
As someone who has been bluntly honest my whole life (apart from those few drunken episodes for which most of us are not caught) it galls me to see those who have no care for others getting ahead by dishonest endeavours backed by bureaucrats.
Gone is the bureaucrat whose goal in life was to make life simpler for their community & like soldiers, police etc knew what the word service actually meant.
People have said it happens in all countries where bureaucrats hold things up. But as an Australian said who immigrated to NZ to launch a business opportunity he saw, "Mate setting up a company was the easiest anywhere, but after that nothing but apathy."
Having been around the world abit the worst I have seen is here in New Zealand. In the Middle East I actually found their open use of back handers quite liberating as it got things done. You just hired a fixer, budgeted for it & gone on with things.
In NZ to offer money would offend but then the hold ups due to requirement for committees (always remembering a camel is a horse designed by a committee) make the whole thing untenable.
New Zealand likes to think it has the perfect governance model, but it doesn't. That is those in governance give direction to those bureaucrats who are to deliver. Having been in Governance roles where I was also the beneficiary has shown that more often than not those in governance roles are actually in tune with those who are supposed to benefit.
Unfortunately the bureaucrats assigned to deliver are more often than not on a different agenda(the TV programmes 'Yes, Minister' & 'Yes, Prime Minister' spring to mind) altogether. Or to quote Ronald Reagan "the scariest words someone can hear is, We are from the government & we are here to help" or words to that effect.
It is why I find the TV programme 'Under cover Boss' so refreshing as it shows those in governance or top management actually finding out what the issues actually are for their business.
Governance (Key Concepts)
Bureaucracy today is more about how inefficent you can be. That causes frustration which in turn causes people to get upset. More often than not the first person who has to deal with it is the lone security guard.
Compare that to organized crime in particular here in New Zealand the gangs who in their own way tend to look after their people. Those that are better at it have less issues & make the job of the police harder as no one will talk against those who have looked after them when things have been bad.
Leadership is not all about been loud or giving someone the 'bash' to keep them in line. People skills are the first thing bureaucrats need to learn.
Corporate Governance Best Practices: Strategies for Public, Private, and Not-for-Profit Organizations
Oh the comment in the title of this book about best Practice. First thing I know from having been on the shop floor as soon as anyone says it, on the floor everyone knows its not.
If the bureaucrats could get their act together there would be a lot less upset people, the country would be saved millions if not billions of dollars. As I have said to one government agency in this last week, "I could run ... better with my little finger." Not only that have better people skills.
Corruption is rife amongst our bureaucrats & it really makes you think "is it really worth it been honest?" You are already seeing bureaucratic corruption at its finest in the aftermath of the Christchurch Earthquake.
http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz
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