The Argus at KellyGang 6/7/1882
THE POLICE COMMISSION
SUPERINTENDENT WINCH'S EVIDENCE
A good deal of importance appears to be attached to the opinions entertained by Superintendent Winch, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan and Bourke police districts respecting the administration of the general police and detective service, and some interest has been manifested respecting his exanimation before the Police Commission Mr Winch was under examination during Monday and Tuesday, and at the rising of the commission yesterday afternoon only small portion of his evidence, which deals exhaustively with the subjects, had been taken. With regard to the administration of the service, Mr. Winch expressed the opinion that it should be placed entirely in the hands of three commissioners, who should be relatively classified, one as chief commissioner, and the other two as assistants. The chief to receive £900 a year, as at present, and the assistants £700 a year each. The plan would involve an increase upon the present expenditure of about £120 per annum, and would have the effect of materially increasing the administration and efficiency of the force. He suggested that one of the assistants should be placed in charge of the Metropolitan district, while the other travelled and inspected the country stations six months in each year, the balance of the time being made up in the city or elsewhere. This change would only amount really to altering the duties and titles of the present officers, and giving them the rank and a slight increase of pay. On the subject of officering the force and dealing with promotions. Mr Winch expressed the opinion, based upon an experience of upwards of 30 years, that it should always go by seniority, everything else being equal. He disapproved of the force being officered entirely from the ranks. Such promotions should be the exception. As a rule, sergeants who were entitled to promotion on the ground of length of service were socially and educationally unfit for the rank, and experience had shown that they were, from age and other causes suitable subjects for superannuation instead of being entrusted with the serious and important responsibilities which devolved upon officers of all degrees. He preferred obtaining the officers, as was done in the olden time, from the cadet system, preference being always given to the sons of officers and other members of the force who had succeeded in pasting the matriculation or civil service examination. These cadets should be thoroughly instructed as to the duty of officers of police, either in the metropolis or other large centres of population, but in no case should they be drafted into the rank until they had been subject to crucial tests, and not till they had shown an aptitude for the work. The present useless rank of senior constable should be entirely abolished and third class sergeants substituted. The senior constables now performed the duty of sergeants, and they were consequently entitled to the rank. There should be three grades of sergeants, the first class receiving 3s, the second 2s, and the third 1s per day extra pay upon promotion, which would make their pay 10s. 6d, 9s 6d, and 8a 6d a day respectively. In addition to these three grades, he suggested a grade of senior sergeants with an increase of Is per day to be given for long and meritorious service, instead of promoting the men from the ranks to sub- inspectorships, which in the majority of cases proved irksome and entirely unsuited to the men. The present wage of 6s 6d a day was not sufficient for men joining the force, and he suggested that recruits should receive 7s a day on being sworn in, and 7s 6d a day after two years' service, provided they conducted themselves and did their duty to the satisfaction of the commissioners.
The detective system was treated by Mr Winch in an exhaustive manner. He considered that any antagonism or ill feeling which existed between the general police and detective branches was the natural outcome of the present unsatisfactory system. As long as the detective force was allowed to continue as at present constituted, so long would a want of co-operation and cordiality exist between the two branches, notwithstanding discipline and the untiring efforts of the officers to the contrary. The system of placing the two branches under separate and distinct heads of departments did not work well. It created a severance of interest, instead of unanimity, which was indispensably necessary for the efficient discharge of duty, and caused a thorough absence of individual responsibility. In the country districts the detectives were placed under the control of the officers in charge, the same as the members of the general force, and they worked satisfactorily. The same principle should be adopted in the city. The present detective department should be abolished, and the plain clothes duty plan, which has worked so well, substituted. Of course it would be necessary to largely increase the number of plain clothes police, but even they would be considerably below the 26 or more who were now employed as detectives. The plain clothes police should be placed under the superintendent in charge of the Melbourne district, who would be held responsible for the detection and suppression of every description of crime. The men should be recruited entirely from the ordinary constabulary, and should receive additional pay for plain clothes duty, those only being selected who exhibited adaptability for what is called "detective" work. In the event of the men selected not coming up to the required standard they could be returned to general police duty, and others promoted in their places. The adoption of this plan would be of the greatest advantage to the whole force, and would have the effect of causing the whole of the men to strive, to qualify themselves for the position by attention to their regular duty, acute observation of the criminal and suspected classes, and by increased steadiness and unswerving truth fullness. The efficiency of every man in the force would, by this means, be secured beyond a doubt. In addition to the plain clothes duty men, there should be six or eight real detectives, of known ability and integrity, who should be employed solely in respect to the higher class of crime. They should not be compelled to undertake trifling or paltry cases as at present, and while in charge of cases they should be immediately placed in possession of all obtained or obtainable information relative thereto by the general or plain-clothes police. They should be attached to the metropolis. There being but one department under this system no jealousies would exist, and all parties would be found working in common reciprocity. The Detective office should be broken up, and the detectives stationed at the Russell street barracks, which would then become the Scotland-yard of Victoria . The few detectives required should be "police agents," and have nothing to do with the general force. The suggestion that they should all rank as sub inspectors was ridiculous.
They should be utilised under special circumstances, but more especially to ferret out perpetrators of particular classes of crime, all other subsidiary offences to be dealt with by the plain clothes police.
Mr. Winch's further examination was adjourned until Tuesday next.
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