Water Police Media Dept Working Overtime

[pelican]

On the 7 news they ran an articl about Police time being wasted by unprepared boaties.

Basic premiss was that Police time was being wasted by boaties who broke down with mechanical or battery failure and requested help and it was affecting their ability to do their jobs????

They had a quick grab from a "marine service / mechanic" ho says that come spring boaties just put their boats in without servicing and it cuses all the problems.

Well that is the beat up boaties spin story of the week and it couldn't have been any more negative.

So what can be done I here them ask - well for a start the successive stupid state governments could actually properly fund VMR etc so police don't have to get involves and half their problem would disappear. Unless it is an imminemt emergecy they could allocate such minor problems that are taking up all their precious time to coastguard, VMR and private tow company's or use the many new fancy Maritime boats that roam the harbour.

With the greater number of boats on teh harbour they chose to use raw numbers not % to declare how many calls for help were responded to. Well if boat ownership and subsequent usage has gone up then it is only likely that more breakdowns and calls will be recieved isn't it.

Their precious police time could then be spent escorting dignitories around the harbour using up all the allocated hours in their budget.

They could educate the public. More than 9 out of 10 boats checked complies which is as good as it is for cars on our roads which have millions spent on education , enforcement and a pink slip registration process.

I just hate seeing such negative press when a educational or positive story could have been promoted and still contained the same message , got the same audience numbers and warn people to check their safety gear and maintain their boats.

Not trying to have too bigger dig but some balance need to be in beat up stories for the news otherwise they belong on the today tonigh sensationalist hit and run media.

Pel

[PM79]

Just make a government funded tow service for all waterways, most people don't call private tow services due to the cost or become members of them because of the cost weighed against service use.

It would put the private companies out of business but tough shit, if their services weren't so expensive more people would use them.

I'd rather row back than pay the huge non member costs or pay the cost of membership just for peace of mind.

That being said maybe we should put all those waterways and maritime boats to use because 90% of the time I see them moored doing nothing and the other 10% I see them playing hide and seek amongst the moored boats trying to catch people doing the wrong thing, what about the people who are in need of help.

Edited October 11, 2008 by reLapse