Police Sergeant Research Articles

Police sergeants and disaster management during Australia’s Black Summer bushfire crisis

ABSTRACT The police sergeant, or equivalent supervisor, is the glue that binds police units together, assigns workloads, and distributes organisational power from ‘above’ to ensure that those in the field play fairly and by the rules. Yet very little empirical research has been undertaken to examine the work of sergeants or consider how these roles impact the ability of police and their partners to manage critical incidents, including complex disasters. Drawing on a case study of disaster policing during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, this paper examines how police sergeants with two distinct emergency management roles leveraged their authority, relationships, and knowledge to support the effective management of this incident. Using composite accounts, it illustrates how both sergeants drew upon and adapted traditional understandings of their role to negotiate the perceived deficiencies of command-and-control and networked features of complex disaster management systems. The case studies illustrate how the officers’ positionalities (organisationally, geographically, and systemically) enhanced their sensemaking abilities during the crisis, and they utilised their recognised authority, relationships, and soft skills to inform, nudge, and influence a wide range of stakeholders. The paper reveals that police sergeants may be uniquely positioned to assist with the coordination of increasingly complex disaster management assemblages at a time when the neoliberal state’s ability to even ‘steer’ these effectively is increasingly called into question.

REKONSTRUKSI KEBIJAKAN PENANGGULANGAN KEJAHATAN BERDASARKAN KEADILAN RESTORATIF DALAM KERANGKA PERADILAN PIDANA YANG BERKEPASTIAN HUKUM

Restorative justice-based criminal policies within the framework of criminal justice which has legal certainty carried out by Polri (Indonesian National Police) are implemented through Penal and non-Penal policies. Penal policies are carried out by investigators as the function of law enforcement, and non-Penal policies are carried out by bhabinkamtibmas (a police sergeant assigned to take care problems related to laws in a village or sub-district) as the function of pre-emptive efforts and patrol unit as the function of preventive efforts.Overcoming crimes based on restorative justice intent to solve problems of society in such a way. The problems can be resolved using the principle of restorative justice, that is, the sense of justice for each party involved in the problems can be realized. Such overcoming involves victims, perpetrators, victims' families and the community as well as the relevant parties in order to reach a fair agreement and settlement.The research focuses on restorative justice in Polri. Meanwhile, the problem questions of the research are: (1) How is the construction (ius constitutum) of crime prevention policies based on restorative justice within the criminal justice framework that has legal certainty? (2) How is the implementation (ius operatum) of crime prevention policies based on restorative justice within the criminal justice framework that has legal certainty? And (3) How is the reconstruction (ius constituendum) of crime prevention policies based on restorative justice within the framework of criminal justice with legal certainty?The research employs the normative juridical approach. The research employs secondary and primary data. Secondary data is obtained by conducting library research and documentary studies, and primary data is obtained by conducting interview studies. Data is then analysed using the mix method (quantitative and qualitative).The results of the research reveal that (1) the construction of crime prevention policies is seen from a philosophical aspect based on Pancasila values and the principles of restorative justice; from a juridical aspect by taking into account legal norms originating from abroad, customary law, Islamic law, and national law, all of which are rooted in Pancasila values; from a sociological aspect that it needs the active participation from the community in supporting the crime prevention based on restorative justice, (2) the implementation of crime prevention policies based on restorative justice using Penal and Non-Penal carried out by the investigative function, bhabinkamtibmas and patrol units, to parse and resolve existing problems in society, and (3) the reconstruction of crime prevention through substance aspects in the forms of renewing Criminal Procedure Code and police regulations, structural aspects of compiling restorative justice mechanisms and increasing personnel competence, cultural aspects in the form of increasing community participation to be aware of laws and support restorative justice programs.

Little Abysses: Adam Zagajewski’s “Evening, Stary Sacz”

Little Abysses: Adam Zagajewski’s “Evening, Stary Sacz” Rosanna Warren (bio) This essay was first delivered as a talk at a conference in honor of Adam Zagajewski at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, June 21, 2022. How does “Poetry Talk with Philosophy” in Adam Zagajewski’s work? The key is in the “how,” since poetry and philosophy don’t share a common language. Poetry, even in all its wild variety, is not an art of systematic propositions, arguments, and proofs. We should pay attention, as well, to the verb “talks”: poetry can talk, but it also murmurs, exults, evades, suggests, hints, curses, chants, sobs, and prays. In his essays and poems, Adam Zagajewski wrestled for decades with the “how” of poetry’s talk with philosophy: it mattered to him. Because, as he wrote in an essay on Nietzsche in A Defense of Ardor, unlike philosophy, “Poetry is condemned to live with mystery.” And he thought poets should be talking with philosophers (and with historians and scientists and theologians), because, as he declared in an essay aptly entitled “Against Poetry,” “It’s not the actual debate that’s at stake here—it’s truth.” I first encountered “Evening, Stary Sacz” in Clare Cavanagh’s English translation in the American journal Poetry in June 2006, and then two years later in the book Eternal Enemies. The last line has obsessed me for years: “Little abysses open between the stones.” Here’s the poem: Evening, Stary Sacz The sun sets behind the market square, and the nettle leaves reflectthe small town’s imperfections. Teapots whistle in the houses,like many trains departing simultaneously.Bonfires flame on meadows and their long sighsweave above the trees like drifting kites.The last pilgrims return from the church uncertainly.TV sets awaken, and instantly know all,like the demons of Alexandria with swindlers’ swarthy faces.Knives descend on bread, on sausage, on wood, on offerings.The sky grows darker; angels used to hide there,but now it’s just the police sergeant and his dear departed motorcycle. [End Page 109] Rain falls, the cobbled streets grow black.Little abysses open between the stones. Adam Zagajewski is no stranger to abysses. Many of his poems rip the fabric of the ordinary to reveal a startling gap or void or possibility. For instance, in “A Quick Poem” from Mysticism for Beginners (also translated by Clare Cavanagh): “I made my way toward the clouds, deep blue, / heavy, dense, / toward the future, toward the abyss.” It’s not always a Baudelairean gouffre or néant that’s revealed. Sometimes Zagajewski opens up a realm of spiritual hope or joy—even ardor—out of all proportion to our bumbling daily lives, as at the end of the poem “From Memory” (also in Mysticism for Beginners): “At noon the clouds’ eye gently / opened, the eye of tears and light.” At times, Zagajewski invokes an abyss that seems historical and political. This is the case in his discussion of the Nazi occupation and the Warsaw uprisings in the chapter called “Writing in Polish” in A Defense of Ardor: “The nothingness that Warsaw, and with it all Poland, had endured, would color the imagination of Polish writers for years to come. Not just color it; this nothingness became one of its chief ingredients. The Polish literary imagination assimilated the abyss.” But for Zagajewski, the historical and political slide quickly toward the moral and the metaphysical. How then are we to read the abysses in “Evening, Stary Sacz”? The town itself sounds like a charming, indeed celebrated, tourist spot, if one judges by various online descriptions. One of the oldest towns in Poland, it dates to the 13th century and still has medieval buildings (including a famous convent) and cobblestone streets; it sits in a nature reserve and attracts hikers, swimmers, and fishermen. Zagajewski seems to have known the town pretty well. But it’s not historical charm that his poems about it record. In an earlier poem entitled simply “Stary Sacz,” he focused on homely details—“jars of borscht and pickles”—and the whimsical if slightly sinister fable of the innkeeper’s daughter carried off, not by the wind, but by “other...

Does higher education matter in policing? An examination of the promotional process to sergeant

Abstract The police sergeant is often regarded as the most influential position in any law enforcement agency, given their direct effect on officer behaviour. As the gateway to police management, the promotion to sergeant offers an opportunity to examine the importance of the growing role of higher education in policing. In analysing the relationship between different levels of higher education and the sergeant promotional examinations, this study found that those with graduate degrees are more likely to become sergeants. While this relationship is striking, the most crucial predictor of the promotion to sergeant belongs to the dominant ethnic group in the agency. Whether in the written exam or interview components of the sergeant’s promotion process, police agencies do not appear to have captured the benefits of higher education in the first rung of the promotion to senior management. Policy implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

“If We Changed Clothes, Sir, We Could Get Things Back to Normal”

“If We Changed Clothes, Sir, We Could Get Things Back to Normal”

Effectiveness Of Investigations According To Act No. 23 Of 2004 On Domestic Violence Cases

This study aims to analyze more deeply the investigation of cases of Domestic Violence that occurred in Grobogan which until now has not been effective. The approach used is sociological juridical. Based on the analysis of the existing data, it was found that the implementation of the investigation in the case of Domestic Violence in Grobogan in its development could not be said to be effective. This is because there are still many families or households who do not know that domestic violence is no longer a family matter but has become a public matter, even a violation of human rights and threatens human life. Besides, there are still many law enforcement officers who are not familiar with the Domestic Violence Law. So that there are obstacles for the process of investigating domestic violence cases when victims report to the RPK (Special Service Room) located at the Regional Police Sergeant in each province in Indonesia. Many investigators have not yet carried out the legal service process for victims by carrying out protective procedures specifically stipulated by Act No. 23 of 2004. This has caused victims to withdraw or withdraw their reports and complaints. The legal facilities provided by the Protection Unit have not been implemented properly.

Kevin BarryThat Old Country Music: Stories

BOOKS IN REVIEW semi-autobiographical novel. When asked in London by a young Palestinian student for advice about funding his education, Said mailed him a £1,500 check. His children teased him for having elitist taste in music. Unable to cope when his son, Wadie, was hospitalized with osteomyelitis, he fled to a concert. He saw a therapist his entire adult life. These are the delicious, humanizing details that sustain a compelling biography in part because they are not available in the subject’s own oeuvre. Brennan supplies these anecdotes in an altogether enthralling biography, but, much like reading Said, his focus on complex literary history can be exhausting. Nevertheless, Places of Mind is a masterful portrait that encourages readers to continue grappling with the complicated ideas to which Said devoted his life. Peter Krause New York Kevin Barry That Old Country Music: Stories New York. Doubleday. 2020. 208 pages. THOUGH NO GHOSTS move through its pages, Kevin Barry’s That Old Country Music is a catalog of hauntings. The characters who populate these eleven stories are bedeviled by phantoms: memories and possibilities, places they can’t forget, and people they really should. The resultant confrontations are chronicled by the Irish author with equal parts earthy relatability and offhand poeticism. Barry introduces his collection with a quote from filmmaker Jane Campion on “the romantic impulse,” characterized as both “heroic” and “foolhardy.” Several of Barry’s stories vividly evoke this tightrope walk. “The Coast of Leitrim” finds its underachieving-aesthete protagonist easing into an affair with a like-minded Polish émigré, then almost wrecking things through nothing more than petty insecurity . In “Saint Catherine of the Fields,” a middle-aged music scholar confronts his romantic failings while transcribing a folk ballad about a woman who, with her husband ’s support, enraptures and destroys an unsuspecting herdsman for “no more than a sport.” And in the titular tale, a young mother-to-be contemplates her destiny while waiting for her baby’s father, an exparamour of her mother’s, to return with the spoils of a petrol-station robbery. A raw form of self-discovery marks “Deer Season,” in which a country girl with a taste for Bolaño novels harnesses “the new soft rhythm of her power” to seduce a forestry worker into taking her virginity, running him out of town in the process. Two other stories offer alternate takes on notions of absorbing identity through others . In “Old Stock,” a writer inherits a country cottage from his satyrish uncle (“Cause of death: the west of Ireland”), then gets more than he bargained for when the house’s aphrodisiac properties begin to turn him into the old libertine reincarnate . Another elder bequeaths his self to the more willing protagonist of “Roma Kid,” who wanders away from her rootless family, is rescued from injury by a trailerdwelling pensioner, and slowly assimilates his home, his books, and his very way of being. Barry was once something of a nomad himself, boasting seventeen addresses by his midthirties, and an ambivalence about the itinerant lifestyle shades the narrator of “Extremadura (Until Night Falls),” a cynical wanderer washed up in western Spain, and the rich-pig mother and son of “Toronto and the State of Grace,” who crash-land in the narrator’s pub to reminisce about their rancorous ramblings as they drink themselves to metaphorical and (in one case) literal death. Even legends are not immune to the traveler’s travails in “Roethke in the Bughouse,” a fictionalized chronicle of the American poet’s unexpected institutionalization during an early 1960s pilgrimage to the coastal isle of Inishbofin. Yet no matter where we roam, our travels terminate the same way, a fact Barry examines in a pair of striking tales that grapple with the inevitability of death. The shaggy-dog-scented “Who’s-Dead McCarthy ” chronicles a man whose daily bread is the incessant sharing of the details of recent passings, simply because he finds the very notion of death “impressive . . . no one has the answer to it.” And a troubled small-town police sergeant aims to answer that yawning question in “Ox Mountain Death Song,” as he stalks the terminally ill scion of a clan...

Work Environment and Job Satisfaction at National Police Service, Kenya

Poor work environment causes major risk to the well-being and quality of staff and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is crucial to the organizational performance which can be affected by the environmental concerns. This research sought to evaluate the role of work environment on job satisfaction at National Police Service with reference to Directorate of Criminal Investigations Department. The specific objectives of the study included: to determine the effect of organizational justice on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service, to establish the effect of interpersonal conflict on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service, to establish the effect of organizational constraints on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service and to assess the effect of physical environment on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service. The research made use of descriptive research design. The strata included; Chief Inspectors of police, Inspector of police, Police corporal, Police sergeant and Police Constables. The research used the approach of stratified sampling. The target population was 2000 workers, 322 respondents made up the final sample size collected. Primary data was used in the analysis. As part of the primary source, the questionnaires were used as a method of data collection. Content validity was used to determine whether the study questionnaire content contained representative samples of the field to be evaluated. The internal accuracy of the test instrument was calculated using the reliability value of the Cronbach Alpha system of 0.7 and above. The quantitative information gathered was analysed utilizing Descriptive statistics using version 21 of the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS). The study established that that organizational justice, interpersonal conflict, organizational constraints and physical environment was positively related to employee job satisfaction. The study concluded on organizational justice that favorable results are likely to happen when employees perceives organizational justice, meaning that they think their business is fair to them. The research concludes on interpersonal conflict that interpersonal conflict is something that often happens in a group of staff, particularly in a high-pressure scenario such as the workplace. Interpersonal conflict inspires employees’ members to compete. The research concludes that elevated levels of human resources and infrastructure constraints influence job satisfaction of employees on organisational constraints. On the physical environment, the research concludes that an appropriate workplace climate assists to lower the absenteeism rate and can therefore boost the job satisfaction of the staff. The research advises on organizational justice that comprehension of the organization is important to the behavior and decision-making operations of its staff that affect organizational justice. The research recommends that the national police service create measures to control conflict so as to eliminate adverse effects of interpersonal conflict. It can be important for better organizational progress to maintain a good level of interpersonal disagreement. Organizational constraints it is recommended that the National Police Service know how to respond to this constantly changing environment by learning how to manage the dynamics of varied uncertainties, advocating fresh learning and leadership technologies that are both innovative and flexible, and easier to enforce. In the physical environment, the research proposes that the national police department develop a favorable job climate, pay its staff according to industry norms, use suitable reward and recognition programs to demonstrate the organization to its staff, provide training and development possibilities and offer their staff the opportunity to be creative and innovative.

The Influence Of Organizational Culture And Work Motivation On The Performance Of Bhayangkara Members, Community Services And Public Order Unit Of Bungo Resort Police

Performance can be interpreted as an extra role such as cooperation, helping colleagues and superiors, and contributing to organizational goals. Culture in an organization can improve performance, because it can create positive motivation to give the best ability to the organization. This study is looking at the influence of organizational culture and work motivation on performance. Organizational culture is defined as the way a person behaves in an organization, and work motivation is the achievement that someone produces because of a drive to complete work in the most possible effective and efficient time to get better results and be able to adjust to the work climate. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of organizational culture and work motivation on the performance of the members of Bhabinkamtibmas (a police sergeant responsible for establishing and maintaining security and public order in a village) of Resort Police. This research uses quantitative approach with survey method. T he popul ation in this study are 53 members of Bhabinkamtibmas of Bungo Resort Police , using total sampling. Th e data collection technique uses questionnaire consisting of 45 - statement items, which are from 9 indicators, and the measurement uses Likert scale with the answer ran ge of 1 to 5. The results show that organizational culture has a significant effect o f 93.7% on performance variable and w ork motivation has a significant effect of 87.4% o n the performance variable . The re fore, it can be explained that the organizational culture variable (X1) has a greater influence on the performance variable (Y) than the motivation variable (X2). Organizational culture and motivation simultaneously provide a significant influence o f 94.1% on the p erformance. Performance can be improved if the organ izational culture is healthy, thus can increase the motivation of members. Key words: corruption, culture, motivation, performance

Bringing The Scarlet Letter into The Scarlet Professor: A Composer's Reflections

Bringing <i>The Scarlet Letter</i> into <i>The Scarlet Professor</i>: A Composer's Reflections

Blood on Boylston: Digital Memory and the Dramatisation of Recent History in &lt;em&gt;Patriots Day&lt;/em&gt;

Blood on Boylston: Digital Memory and the Dramatisation of Recent History in &lt;em&gt;Patriots Day&lt;/em&gt;

Sector Well-Being Differences Among UK Police Custody Staff

The research explores a new model of staff well-being across UK police custodial services (public and private). These services are unique for the fact that police sergeant custody officers are supported by detention officers who can be publicly or privately contracted, with the latter providing a heterogeneous mix never previously researched. The model informs a survey approach conducted across four English police forces. Drawing on a diverse literature which compares health and criminal justice professions, this study explores the possibility that private sector detention officers will report lower levels of emotional exhaustion and workplace stress and higher levels of personal accomplishment than their public sector counterparts. Multilevel analyses, supplemented by ANOVA and t tests, detected statistically significant differences for private sector detention officers regarding higher levels of emotional exhaustion and lower levels of personal accomplishment and workplace stress (with the stress result the only one in the predicted direction). However, results should be interpreted as sample specific linked to privately contracted detention officer disquiet with their then employer (since replaced). That said, the results provide a good exploration of the model’s utility together with important lessons for model and survey development in the future.

Lontano by Jean-Christophe Grangé

that he does not easily accept Olivio who has developed into a sensitive teenager, cohabitation is difficult. Luckily for Olivio, his friendship with Ahmed, an Algerian immigrant of his age, provides the much-needed comfort he covets. Giraud presents the immigrant experiences of the Portuguese and the pieds-noirs, while showing the sharp opposition between Ahmed’s and Max’s perspectives on Algerian independence. Equally heartbreaking is Olivio’s narration, at the outset of the Carnation Revolution, of the upheaval felt by the Portuguese who fled Salazar’s dictatorship; their emotions range from sadness of not partaking in an historical event to euphoria that the dictatorship has ended. Canisius College (NY) Eileen M. Angelini Grangé, Jean-Christophe. Lontano. Paris: Albin Michel, 2015. ISBN 978-2-22631816 -9. Pp. 777. 25 a. With its evocative vocabulary, darkly humorous style, and fast-moving plot, this first installment of a two-part family saga vividly portrays the powerful Morvan clan as it faces the wrath of l’homme-clou. As is typical of Grangé’s novels, Lontano probes beneath the squeaky-clean surface of contemporary Western Europe to unearth its sordid past of buried secrets, this time in Franco-Belgian Congo. The gruesome murder of a navy cadet in Brittany, fashioned into a nkondi, a Congolese protective religious effigy, marks the resurrection of a serial killer who was caught by Grégoire Morvan back in Lontano, Congo, decades earlier. In parallel with the developing murder case, brief chapters provide glimpses into the Morvan family members’ conflicted thoughts and secretive activities. These characters, despite their clichéd portrayal, successfully elicit both sympathy for their plight and distaste for their vices. Overprotective father Grégoire Morvan is a former police officer whose success in the Congo provided him with the financial and political backings to propel him to his present status as a ruthless politician and businessman. His Belgian-Congolese wife Maggie appears passively disconnected from reality, yet commands an inexplicable hold over her husband. Their tumultuous, sometimes physically violent relationship has deeply impacted the mental health of their three adult children. Their son Loïc is a high-powered stock-trader in a failing marriage that Grégoire Morvan is determined to keep from divorcing. Loïc’s anti-materialism, quest for spiritual peace, and selfdestructive drug abuse hide a fragile interior traumatized by an overwhelming father figure. Their daughter Gaëlle, an aspiring actress, prefers paid promiscuity to relying on her father’s wealth and reputation.Although she is mentally unstable and victimized, glimpses into her thoughts reveal a strong, determined individual with a penchant for vengeance, like her father. Erwan, the other son, the novel’s main protagonist, is a police sergeant striving to make his career outside his father’s long shadow. But he has inherited Grégoire’s taste for violence. Historical parallels, psychologically 236 FRENCH REVIEW 90.1 Reviews 237 charged characters, and intriguing intertextual references combine with multi-sensory descriptions to make for a stylistically dense, but very readable novel. Surreptitious manipulations,covert political collaborations,underground organizations,and corrupt economics effectively lure the reader’s curiosity into the dark network that thrives beneath the superficial luster of the respected Morvan clan. However, some of the plot twists tip the novel’s realism toward the impossible, bordering on absurdity. Grangé’s fusion of disparate topics, such as religion and militarism, sexuality and violence, politics and medical science, can make it seem as if he is trying too hard to touch on all crime-novel themes. But this combination also underscores the complexity of human existence in its most malevolent forms. Grangé makes the argument that in a realm where individual, biological, and cultural memory are irrevocably linked, preconceived distinctions between faith and madness, suffering and empowerment, good and bad, are ultimately meaningless. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Nathalie G. Cornelius Kerangal, Maylis de. À ce stade de la nuit. Paris: Verticales, 2015. ISBN 978-2-07010754 -4. Pp. 74. 7,50 a. Set in the very early morning under a halo of kitchen light and accompanied by little more than a late-night radio voice, these pages of reflections link distant geographies , personal memories, myths, and a strong dose of insight...

Criterion-related validity of the competency model of armed police sergeant

Objective To examine the Criterion-related validity of the competency model of armed police sergeant.Methods 513 armed police soldiers were evaluated by 2 leaders with competency model of armed police sergeant.5 equidistant grades rating method was used.The list of excellent soldiers were collected.Results ( 1 ) There were significant differences on 17 items of competency scores between excellent soldier group and average soldier group (P ＜ 0.05 ), except for one item of competency.Furthermore, there were significant differences on 4 factor scores and sum scores between excellent soldier group and average soldier group (P ＜ 0.05 ).( 2 ) The predictive probability were 72.6 % (A) ,71.3% (B) predicting excellent soldiers by the sum scores of competency model.Conclusion The Criterion-related validity of the competency model of armed police sergeant is acceptable.It can be used in the selecting and training of armed police sergeant. Key words: Competency model; Validity; Armed police sergeant

Dispute Resolution Lessons Gleaned from the Arrest of Professor Gates and ‘The Beer Summit’

On July 30, 2009, President Obama convened the “beer summit,” a metaphorical mediation. President Obama invited Professor Henry Louis Gates, a well-respected African American Academic, and Police Sergeant James Crowley, a Caucasian, to the White House Rose Garden to resolve the issues surrounding the arrest of Professor Gates in his own home by Sergeant Crowley. Using the beer summit as a springboard, this article challenges the long held taboo proscribing the mediation of civil rights violations as racial profiling. The author raises the limitation of litigation, highlights existing effective mediation models, and suggests protocols to be considered when designing mediation programs to address to racism.

Utility of Assessment Center for Promotion of Police Sergeants

Is the cost of an assessment center worth it? This study demonstrates the economic utility of an assessment center as a part of a promotional examination to police sergeant. The total cost of the program to assess 208 candidates was $158,970, or $764 per candidate. Based on initial promotions of 22 sergeants, total utility was estimated to be at least $414,943, utility per candidate was estimated to be at least $1995, and utility per selectee was estimated to be at least $18,861. Substantially higher estimates of utility were shown when alternative values of costs, validities of the assessment center, number of sergeants promoted over the life of the promotional list, and the benefits of selecting effective sergeants.

Ellen Margaret (Nelle) Scanlan, 1882–1968

Nelle Scanlan was the most popular New Zealand novelist of the 1930s and 1940s, particularly important for her pivotal role in creating a New Zealand market and readership for New Zealand fiction. Her Pencarrow novels were the first bestsellers written by a New Zealander, with a New Zealand setting, and appealing to the local market. However, the success of these, and Scanlan’s other novels, is also an indication of their limitations. Scanlan’s fiction appealed to readers precisely because it held up a comfortable picture of New Zealand as a prosperous, thriving nation of hard working individuals with close ties to their British roots. Her novels speak of the desirability of the traditional ideals of family loyalty, individual responsibility and hard work and are grounded in a conservative political outlook distinguished by laissez faire non-interventionism and free trade. These were the values of her middle class, pakeha readership and inevitably her fiction had wide popular appeal. Within the confines of her chosen genres, the family saga and romance, Scanlan was capable of insight into the tensions and triumphs of human relationships. However, her recurring character types — the serene wife and mother, the demanding husband, the rebellious adolescent and the patient lover — at times lack individuality and her plots are constrained by their moral framework and romantic formula. Only in Ambition’s Harvest does Scanlan depart from her successful pattern in a bleak expose of the predicament of the New Zealand artist abroad. This is the most autobiographical of Scanlan’s novels and reflects her independent outlook and adventurous spirit. Scanlan’s life as a journalist and writer has all the hallmarks of a feminist crusader, but, in keeping with her conservative politics, she vociferously rejected the feminist label and in her fiction lauded the influence of strong, domestic women. Ellen Margaret Scanlan, always known as Nelle, was born in Picton on 15 January 1882. She came from Irish Catholic heritage. Her father, Michael Scanlan, was born in Country Kerry, Ireland. He had an adventurous disposition and had travelled to the Australian goldfields before settling in New Zealand, where he worked as a police sergeant. His wife, Ellen Kiely, was 20 years his junior and came from a farming and seafaring County Cork family. Nelle Scanlan had an older sister, Mary, and an older brother, Dan. Scanlan had an awareness and appreciation of language from a young age. When she was four she was attracted by the word ‘Pickwick’ when her father read aloud Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Papers. The rhythms of poetry

The Validity of Assessment Center Ratings and 16PF Personality Trait Scores in Police Sergeant Promotions: A Case of Incremental Validity

Assessment centers (AC) have become a mainstay of promotion systems for both the private and public sectors--police agencies included. (1) While costly to develop and implement, their track record of validity and legal defensibility has justified their increased use. (2) Similarly, the use of personality trait measurement in personnel decisions has also shown a substantial increase in use based on its validity in predicting a range of employee and managerial job behaviors. (3) Unlike ACs, police agencies have used personality assessment primarily for entry level officer screening and fitness for duty assessments. (4) The use of personality assessment in police officer promotional decisions has rarely been reported. Personality trait scores have shown incremental validity, however, when combined with cognitive ability tests in predicting a range of employee and managerial behaviors, (5) but not for state police recruits. (6) In addition, incremental validity has been found for personality measures when combined with biodata (7) and ACs. (8) Other than the attempt of Cortina, Coherty, Schmitt, Kaufmann and Smith, (9) who found no evidence of incremental validity, there have been no other reported studies of incremental validity for personality trait scores when used in combination with any other predictor of police officer or supervisor performance. Evidence of Assessment Center Validity There is substantial literature which documents the validity of ACs in predicting on-the-job performance, especially for managers. (10) In addition to its proven validity, based on candidate reactions and court challenges, the AC method has been labeled fair and legally defensible. (11) The validity of ACs used for police officer selection and promotion has been shown to be commensurate with that found in other organizational settings. For example, AC performance ratings have been shown to be significantly related to supervisor ratings of officer performance, (12) valid for high ranking police officials (13) and accurate in prediction over a 19-year time span. (14) Evidence of Validity for Personality Measurement While early reviews of the literature indicated that personality assessment yielded poor validity in predicting job performance, (15) more recent work has established personality as a bona fide predictor of a range of job-related behaviors across a variety of organizational settings and employee groups, including police officers. (16) A number of meta-analyses have provided reasonable support for the use of personality assessment in selection. (17) The decision to use personality assessment by itself within an employee selection context should be made with caution, given the greater validity shown by other predictor measures, such as cognitive ability tests and assessment centers. The resurgence of personality assessment as a valid predictor of job performance is due in large part to the fact that: 1. Personality has been shown to be a valid predictor of work-related outcomes; 2. Personality measures do not generally display adverse impact against demographic subgroups (e.g., racial, gender, ethnic, etc.); 3. The validity of personality measures is not affected by intentional faking; (18) and 4. The construct of personality has become more structured with the acceptance of the personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness and extraversion) and the consistency with which they are measured. (19) Many studies have dealt specifically with the ability of personality trait scores to predict police officer performance, both on the job and while in training. Personality traits have been measured through traditional clinical self report inventories as well as instruments designed to assess the Big Five dimensions (e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; (20) the Inwald Personality Inventory; (21) the California Psychological Inventory; (22) the Eyesenck Personality Inventory, the SCL-90, and the Bender-Gestalt; (23) the 16PF; (24) and the NEO Personality Inventory (25)). …

Funding sources and consequences: the subverting of an Indigenous community outreach program

The Yolngu people of North-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, have lived with alcohol for just over 30 years. For some it has had devastating health, social, family and cultural impacts. This is particularly the case for a group of Yolngu people who permanently or transiently camp on the fringes of the predominately non-Indigenous township of Nhulunbuy. The Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation Outreach Program was a response to alcohol use by this Aboriginal community. An evaluation, in consultation with Miwatj Health, sought to examine the conception, development and success of the Outreach Program. This was a qualitative study that used: unconcealed participant observation, formal semi-structured interviews, group interviews, opportunistic impromptu discussion, and documentary/archival review. Interviews were conducted with Outreach Program staff, Yolngu community members, Aboriginal health workers, Miwatj Health doctors, Living with Alcohol representatives, the town administrator, Nhulunbuy police sergeant, the publican and local council officer. Group interviews were conducted with two groups of campers, Outreach Program workers and Aboriginal health care workers. For the Yolngu people the focus of the Outreach Program was meant to be on talking with and counselling drinkers, cultural activities, and liaising with other substance misuse programs and the police. The Outreach Program has achieved some success and helped a small number of Yolngu to limit their alcohol use and reconnect with the community. However, the Outreach Program has come to focus more and more on cleaning up litter; a key issue for the non-Indigenous community. This article focused on one key finding from the evaluation and that is the impact that funding (or lack of funding), the source of funding and the parameters imposed by funding bodies can have on the success or otherwise of a community driven program. The ability of Indigenous communities to determine appropriate program approaches and implementation is undermined when funding sources place restrictions which reflect non-Indigenous values and dominate program outcomes.

Mathematics Detective: A Hidden Solution to the Water Jar Problem

The Water Jar problem, which is discussed here, has been around since the early 1800s. The problem involves finding a specific amount of water by pouring water in and out of two different containers. In fact, one movie highlighted elements of the Water Jar problem in its storyline. The leading characters, one a police sergeant and the other a businessman, become involved in solving puzzles and problems related to a crime. The crime, of course, involves the classic Water Jar problem. Two containers, an unlimited amount of water but a very limited amount of time, and a pressure-sensitive mechanism that will trigger a catastrophe add drama to the movie and highlight the need for clear-headed logic to avoid a potentially disastrous dilemma.