Industrial

INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL MARK CARROLL TOM SCHEFFLER PASA Assistant Secretary PASA Assistant Secretary Shift manager New guns a danger, too 22 What is a shift manager? * The disruption to workloads of those Training and competency Former deputy commissioner, rostered to perform shift-manager The Police Association has received reports that brand implications Police Journal Neil McKenzie, implemented duties over weekends. new Smith and Wesson Before firearms training, members this concept in 2000 to manage patrols * The willingness of senior sergeants revolvers issued to operational receive a warning to take precautions and operational support units within and and officers to perform regular "out-of- members have discharged shrapnel. against firearms shrapnel ­ to wear across LSA boundaries to ensure hours" inspectoral roles within the LSA. Earlier reports suggested that the safety glasses, earmuffs and long- April 2005 adequate service provision to the public. Other LSAs report, anecdotally, that shrapnel-discharge problem had sleeve shirts. Even in the face of During peak workload periods, the the patrol sergeant performs the role on come about because of the age of, these precautions, however, shrapnel LSA commander was responsible for more occasions than not. This, in turn, and wear and tear on, older revolvers. has reportedly penetrated members' deploying a senior sergeant as shift So, now that the brand new www raises the question of "higher duties". clothing and still embedded itself in manager and, at other than peak The shift manager is not presently a revolvers have emerged with the their skin. .policejournalsa.org.au workload times, the patrol sergeant prescribed promotional position. It is discharge problem, it would seem the Another difficulty to emerge from was to be nominated. a function to be performed by either a cause is not only that of age and the shrapnel dilemma is that of Under the McKenzie concept, the shift senior sergeant or sergeant. Higher wear and tear. anxiety, caused to members as they manager was responsible for utilizing all duties only apply in those As we continue to hear assurances undergo the qualification test. Their resources (including overtime) operating circumstances in which an employee that the risk of shrapnel injury is ability to concentrate and hold their within the LSA ­ and, when necessary, is relieving in the position of a being minimized, reports of such weapons ­ after being told of the resources of other LSAs and services ­ sergeant or senior sergeant for five incidents continue to flow into PASA reported incidents ­ naturally suffers to attend taskings. days or more vide clause 15 of the head office. adverse effects. The shift manager was to be held Police Officers Award. For those unfamiliar with the In almost every incident, the accountable for the appropriate current dilemma: operational SAPOL If the patrol sergeant is on a circumstances were such that each oversight of the "primary shift members are issued with Smith and programmed day off, the member member who suffered the injury had supervisors" under his/her control. A Wesson revolvers. relieving the sergeant will perform the been positioned next to another shift manager was to monitor the When they are fired, small shards duties and functions of the sergeant member whose firearm expelled the response of resources, and report any of metal sometimes shear off of the for that shift, including, in some cases, shrapnel. instance of inadequate service to the bullet casings. These shards the function of shift manager, for no This further compounds the anxiety Tactical Coordination Group. become high-velocity projectiles as extra remuneration as it is only for a issue. How, after all, could a member SAPOL believed that, over the they are expelled from, and at right single day. take a relaxed approach into a years, Comcen had become too angles to, the revolvers. The Police Association has received firearms competency assessment if involved in directing operations and And, during firearms training, a complaints from some patrol that member knew he or she might taskings rather than acting as a number of members have suffered injure a colleague? sender and receiver of information. sergeants who now find themselves injuries from the flying shards. Channel Nine News broadcast a Anecdotal evidence suggested that assisting their staff with general Shrapnel has, in some cases, report on the shrapnel issue in mid- some members in other services were taskings (owing to lack of staff), embedded itself in members' necks, February. SAPOL, in its contribution selective of the types of jobs to which supervising their teams, performing all cheeks, noses, hands, arms and to the item, conceded that it was they responded. other patrol sergeant functions ankles. indeed possible for members to be Since 2000, the administrative (administration etc) as well as being struck by shrapnel from the revolvers arrangements for this responsibility the shift manager. during training. have changed within LSAs. For They say that, by virtue of the level It seems extraordinary that, in light example, the South Coast LSA of accountability and responsibility of of this concession, SAPOL does not discontinued the practice of rotating the function of shift manager, the role ­ in order to protect its employees ­ LSA-based senior sergeants through should be a stand-alone position this role and the patrol sergeant within the LSA, with a minimum rank assumed the role of South Coast shift of senior sergeant. Shrapnel injuries reported to PASA: manager for each shift. This course of The association intends to form a action was taken owing to: working party to discuss this issue in 2003 2004 * The current limited staffing levels. greater detail. If you would like to be June July March April June * The operational experience of part of that party, or provide both sergeants and senior information, please call me on sergeants expected to perform (08) 8212 3055. shift-manager duties. markcarroll@pasa.asn.au pursue the most logical course of action: the supply of more appropriate firearms. EDITORIAL SAPOL also asserted that, in ANDY DUNN operational situations, shrapnel injuries would be highly unlikely to occur. This assertion would come as cold comfort to the police or civilian victim of a shrapnel injury, should one occur. And, on the day after the Channel Nine news item, another member wound up with shrapnel embedded in Cops made of stern stuff his right forearm after a further incident. The most recent incident, reported Any scenario in which they might 23 on March 16, emerged as possibly the Port Lincoln community constable and Police have failed to cheat death was one Police Journal most disturbing. A member Association member, Ian that Kylee "...didn't even want to undertaking outdoor firearms training Ryan, lost virtually everything he think about..." "That's the scariest at Fort Largs sustained a 5mm cut owned in the Black Tuesday thing..." she told the Police Journal. from flying shrapnel, which embedded bushfire. He was naturally And how mentally tough was the itself in his upper left forearm. devastated. drawn-out disaster for Greg Van April 2005 A firearms instructor applied a And, although the members of his Den Broek, whom the fire forced bandaid to his wound, which had begun family survived, he eventually came away from his own wife and child as to bleed profusely. However, blood to wonder how he might have they fled into the sea to survive? www continued to flow through the bandaid, carried on had he lost them as well. How many men or women could prompting the instructor and a .policejournalsa.org.au "I don't know how anybody could have endured the frustration of colleague to apply a bandage. have coped with that," he told the separation from their families in that Later, in the Fort Largs reception Police Journal. kind of crisis? area, the member received further fist But one of his fellow association But just as Ian Ryan and Janelle aid and fresh bandaging. members, Janelle Carman, had to Carman broke through their deep Once the blood flow had stopped ­ cope with exactly that: the tragic emotional pain, so, too, did Kylee 25 minutes later ­ the member felt deaths of her young niece and Walsh and Greg Van Den Broek. stinging around the wound and sought nephew, whom she had loved so With their courage, and hospital treatment. An x-ray revealed dearly. determination to bounce back, all shrapnel inside the wound. She said she could not "even put four officers showed the true depth Medical advice was that it (the into words" what she felt when she of their characters. shrapnel) might work its own way out was told of their deaths. To the benefit of their families, and through the member's skin. Somehow, she mustered the the communities they serve, they PASA wrote to SAPOL on February emotional strength and mental are made of sterner stuff than most. 2 with a request for the number of toughness to carry on, in both her reports, and details, of shrapnel work, as a Port Augusta police ...and condolences incidents that have occurred. No officer, and her private life. Her For the tragic loss of her niece response has yet come from SAPOL. emergence, from under the pall and nephew, Star and Jack Some hold the concern that the true which must have hung over her, has Borlase, the Police Journal extends number of shrapnel incidents might be been inspirational. its deepest sympathy to Janelle significantly higher than that so far But the story of each member Carman and her family. reported to the Police Association. who featured in the Cops' Black Also lost earlier this year was Members should, in a timely manner, Tuesday pain was an object lesson former CIB detective, Rick "Ski" advise the Police Association of all Stills from the Channel Nine in human resilience. Rudzinski, as reported in From shrapnel-discharge incidents ­ even News report on the Smith & Wesson revolvers. Consider the ordeals of Whyalla under Soviet thumb to SA those that do not result in injury. It is police officer, Kylee Walsh, and detective. The Police Journal vitally important that the association West Coast Intel officer, Greg Van extends its deep sympathy and has all appropriate information to hand Den Broek. support to his wife, Joyce, and the so as to scrutinize the level of safety Despite a conspiracy of events ­ a many members of his family of afforded its members. late evacuation, a missing dog, cars three generations. thomasscheffler@pasa.asn.au not starting ­ Kylee, her police editor@pasa.asn.au officer husband, Michael, and their two young children literally cheated death as they drove through the fire. 2005 August October November February March