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| NEWS > 08 October 2007 |
Other related articles:
'Snitching' called just part o
The sequel to the infamous Stop Snitching DVD and its implied message - intended or not - is only part of a larger code of silence, a member of a panel said last night at an East Baltimore church.
To get to the root of a culture in which telling on wrongdoers is discouraged, Tyrone Powers, an education and political activist, told about 75 people at New Life United Methodist Church that drug dealers and murderers should not be singled out, and that there need to be whistleblowers in all walks of life, willing to expose politicians, police officers and clergy.
"In this town, i... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Courier Mail - Australia
08 October 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Breath test fixing a case of i
OUTRAGE would seem to be an acceptable response to the news, revealed in today's Courier-Mail, that police are faking alcohol breath tests to meet their quotas.
But before damning any police involved in such practices, it is worth looking at the bigger picture. Police across the state have a quota of about three million random breath tests a year. About a million are carried out by 400 traffic officers. General duties officers, with plenty of other pressing police matters on their plate, are expected to do the rest.
The almost inevitable consequence of high quotas and competing demands on time, as indicated by our information, is that tests are being faked – by manipulating alcometers to record a zero-level reading even though no one actually breathes into the machine. In the words of one police veteran, "the quota system is purely a statistical exercise and that exercise is a stupidity". There are a number of disturbing aspects to this situation. First, if police are indeed faking the numbers, then we are entering slippery-slope territory. This might be just a matter of meeting "stupid" quotas, in the eyes of some, but it is misrepresentation nonetheless. And one of the most crucial things we must demand from our law enforcement community is integrity, at all levels.
Regardless of the morality of such action, it also seems ludicrous that police should be wasting time faking test results simply to meet someone's quota. Which begs the question of where did these quota numbers come from? They might be based in science and logic, but surely the success or otherwise of the police effort to control drink- driving should be in the numbers charged rather than simply the number tested. And on that basis, Queensland police have an impressive strike rate. Last year more than 30,000 Queensland drivers were charged with driving over the limit compared with 21,000 in Victoria and 25,000 in NSW.
Another worrying aspect of faked RBT numbers is that it would suggest there are more drink-drivers on Queensland roads than the numbers suggest. According to the official figures 1.1 per cent of 3 million drivers tested last year recorded a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. But according to one estimate up to one-third of RBT numbers could be fake. And if that is the case, then the percentage of drink-drivers caught rises to 1.7 per cent of those tested. The aim from this point on should not simply be to crack down on any front-line police found cheating on their RBT numbers, but rather to concentrate even more on reducing the number of drink-drivers on our roads.
Demanding that police test a minimum number of drivers each year might be a perfectly legitimate tactic. But those quotas have to be realistic and serve a real purpose other than contributing to upbeat ministerial press releases.
Police have enormous workloads as it is. If they are going to be asked to meet minimum quotas on RBT testing, or any other aspect of police work for that matter, they, and we, the paying public, should understand the reasons why.
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