Aus - Top cop says past drug use should not ban new recruits

[poledriver]

Aus - Top cop says past drug use should not ban new recruits

PEOPLE who admit to having experimented with drugs in their youth should be allowed to pursue policing careers, Queensland's new top cop says.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has been involved in discussions for months with the Police Union and the Crime and Misconduct Commission about reviewing the force's entry standards.

"We don't believe that if someone tried a drug when they were 14 at a high school party and they've never used it again, that that should necessarily preclude them.''

Mr Stewart said he was worried the current system used to screen potential recruits was encouraging them to lie about past drug use.

Currently, aspiring recruits are asked if they have ever used drugs in their lives. If they answer yes, they are immediately excluded.

Queensland civil libertarian Terry O'Gorman told the ABC that he believed the principal of rehabilitation should apply to police as well as others.

He said if someone had used marijuana when they were 16 or 18 they should not be excluded from applying for the police service years later.

However, he said if there was a conviction for recent drug use, it could be a completely different matter.

Mr O'Gorman said police used weapons and drove at high speed as part of their job so just like pilots or mine workers operating heavy machinery they could not be drug users.

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.a...ast-drug-use-should-not-ban-new-recr/1610928/

 

[poledriver]

Qld police union wants drug rule changes

QUEENSLAND'S new police commissioner says there are good reasons to relax rules that ban anyone who's ever smoked marijuana from becoming an officer.

Ian Stewart says he's worried the current system used to screen potential recruits is encouraging them to lie about past drug use.

Currently, aspiring recruits are asked if they've ever used drugs in their lives. If they answer is yes, they are immediately excluded.

Mr Stewart says the system encourages people to lie, and that's incompatible with the police service's desire to attract people with the highest integrity.

"We're setting people up for failure in this way," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

He said it defied commonsense that someone who admitted to experimenting with marijuana at high school should years later be prevented from joining the police force.

"We want to reflect our society," Mr Stewart said, citing a 2010 survey that showed a third of Australians aged 14 or older had used the drug at least once.

Mr Stewart said the service's primary concern was cannabis use, not users of hard drugs who should be excluded as candidates.

He said the service had been reviewing its rules around the issue, and a decision was imminent.

Police union president Ian Leavers said change was overdue, and many other professions didn't exclude people on the basis of past, experimental drug use.

"I don't want drug users in the police and I don't support drug users," he told the ABC.

"But I think we must have an open mind (about) what someone did 20 years ago."

He said Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton had all admitted to experimental drug use in their younger days, and they'd gone on to lead one of the world's most powerful nations.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey has told The Courier-Mail he would not support any move that would lower recruiting standards.

He says those standards must always reflect community expectations.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...rug-rule-changes/story-e6frfku9-1226511183351

 

[Crankinit]

Seems more than reasonable to me.