Journal Archive
Not quite the Executive Suite
Workplace conditions are "deplorable" and "depressing" at the Police Department's prosecution section in Adelaide, according to Superintendent Hank Ramm.
As the section's officer-in-charge since June 1996, Ramm regards the Wright Street building, a former fish factory, from which his 95 staff have to operate, as wholly inadequate.
And his staff aren't the only ones he's concerned about: he continually apologizes to crime victims and other members of the public who enter these much-derided premises for meetings with prosecutors.
Previously housed in the Police Department's Angas Street building, Adelaide Prosecution moved to its Wright Street accommodation in 1992.
Today it houses, in addition to police prosecutors, seven employees from the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) as well as all staff attached to the Expiation Notice Unit.
From outside, the building is utterly unrecognizable as a police facility. Its featureless two-storey facade bears no signage or SAPOL (South Australia Police) emblems and, to any glancing passers-by, it has a distinctly vacant look. First-time visitors often hesitate and peer through the closed glass doors before entering wondering if they've come to the right address.
But it's beyond the building's front doors that its inadequacies as the domain of police prosecutors are painfully obvious.
An A4 sheet of paper stuck to a wall facing the front doors is the first means of direction to new visitors after stepping inside. "...please report to reception," it reads. And, taking only three paces to the right across unsightly black stains covering threadbare carpet is how one complies with the sign.
So constricted is the "greeting" area that it allows movement of only about two paces in any direction. Its shape is inconveniently uneven as one wall seems to diverge continually into a variation of angles. And, still, neither the Piping Shrike nor any other SAPOL emblem is displayed.
A thick, unwelcoming perspex screen separates the receptionist from those who enter. It makes conversation possible only through an intercom. A row of cheap red vinyl chairs is positioned in a connecting fashion at right angles with the reception counter. Privacy is non-existent: announcing one's reason for calling means being overheard by every other waiting visitor.
Only four or five people are enough to over-crowd the area. When that happens, prosecutors are inevitably forced to side-step the overflow of people as they move in and out of the building through a connecting doorway between reception and their offices.
"All walls and corridors" is how consulting architects recently described the two floors of workspace which lie beyond that connecting doorway. Such outsider reaction may be seen as vindicating Ramm's ritual apology to visitors.
Blessed with windows, the offices around the perimeter of the building might just be considered habitable. But the inner areas of both floors are a maze of tiny cell-like offices separated by passageways barely wider than those of train carriages. Space, windows and natural light aren't found in these offices. Poor ventilation and ageing, tattered furniture can be found in all of them, however.
Some offices are slightly larger but accommodate more staff; seven in the case of one ground-floor office. In these rooms people are cramped with their desks either jammed into corners or tightly against one another. Privacy is virtually impossible: installing partitions would use up what little space remains.
And lack of space is a problem for all: Ramm gave up his own office for his training officer, Senior Sergeant Allan McDonald. He now occupies a smaller office with which McDonald would otherwise have been forced to cope.
Transforming a first-floor boardroom into a Bastille dungeon would be easy work for a studio set decorator. Its narrowness and thin, wall-to-wall eastern window -- which extends only about one foot below the ceiling - give the room a centuries-old look.
Its narrow dimensions are almost completely taken up by a plain oblong table, while the window allows only a feeble ray of light to penetrate the gloom. Its dungeon-like features are scarcely disguised by a bland coat of paint and fluorescent light.
Throughout the building, the walls are bare and carpets are soiled and worn. Only one set of rest rooms is provided on each floor, and one shower is all that's available on the ground floor for the entire male staff.
A pile of dumped, broken furniture at the foot of a staircase makes a scene like an indoor rubbish tip. Seemingly ever-present, the mess continues to enlarge with the passage of time.
It's in these conditions that prosecutors are forced to study court files, prepare for trials and deal generally with heavy workloads. Ramm harbours immense concern for their plight; he politely conceals his intense frustration behind a calm exterior.
And why shouldn't he be frustrated? In September last year he submitted a report to SAPOL's property branch manager, Geoff Schneider, through the office of the Assistant Commissioner for Operations Support. He indicated his concerns about:
- The reception area.
- Customer service.
- Privacy.
- Security.
- Space.
Furniture.
"Why this situation ever arose and has been left unattended for so long is (to me) puzzling...it is no good letting the situation remain the way it is," he wrote.
But Ramm's report is now 14 months old, and no upgrading has yet been attempted.
"We work with and in opposition to solicitors from large firms which are well resourced," Ramm says. "Prosecutors equate with solicitors when they front the bar table in court, but they're certainly not resourced anywhere near as well.
"The Adelaide Magistrates' Court is moving into quite luxurious accommodation, which I say they should have. But I (also) say we should have better circumstances than we've got now, and conditions which should equate with some of the best solicitors' offices in town."
Ramm sees the environment as directly responsible for increasing the stress levels and general ill-health of his staff. He says that sick leave has risen ever since prosecution personnel occupied the building.
But the morale of those braving the conditions inspires Ramm. He's proud of their capacity to make the environment "happy" and "workable". "It's a credit (to them) that they do that," he says.
"Remarkably, the people do make things work, and work well. They keep moving forward, sometimes under pretty extreme and demanding circumstances."
But after five years' occupation of a building in which conditions are so oppressive, how much longer can people continue to "make things work"?
"There's not much alternative except to leave, and some people have been here about as long as anybody could endure the place," Ramm says. "Some people are looking forward to moving on to other parts of SAPOL or, into the wider world and, in part, it's because conditions simply are not good enough."
SAPOL management has seemed reluctant to respond to concerns associated with the building. Geoff Schneider withdrew from a pre-arranged interview with the Police Journal in mid-October. Acting Assistant Commissioner Dean Angus kept an appointment with the Police Journal but, at the 11th hour, imposed conditions on an in- person interview to which he'd agreed three days earlier.
At that meeting, Angus did agree to issue a written statement, but said that he doesn't believe that the condition of the Wright Street building is deplorable.
"The Department is aware that the general standard of accommodation at Prosecution Services is not necessarily...desirable," his statement reads.
It also explains, however, that an Adelaide firm of architects, Hardy Milazzo, is currently consulting with SAPOL on upgrading accommodation. But timeframes, or even a general date as to when upgrading might begin, aren't indicated.
Angus instead writes only of "providing an expert assessment of the ideal requirements for Prosecution Services".
His statement also reads: "The Department is also progressively adopting a system of programmed maintenance...to achieve both optimum levels of accommodation and use of funds. This process will establish a system of regular maintenance wherein it (is) expected that over time, the general standard of facilities will be improved..."
But the Wright Street building has simply "over-run its use-by date" according to PASA (Police Association of South Australia) president, Peter Alexander. He says it's neither user-friendly nor conducive to high morale.
"It's extraordinary to compare the accommodation there (at Wright Street) as opposed to the DPP office in Pirie Street," he says. "And the Flinders Street building (SAPOL headquarters), for those who are lucky enough to work in it, offers a very modern, professional environment, and yet, the people in Wright Street are certainly being neglected in terms of appropriate accommodation.
"The facilities provided are just sub- standard, and I think the Police Department has allowed it to continue far too long. When it goes on for the amount of years we're talking about here, something's very wrong."
And the state of the reception area alone is, in Hank Ramm's judgement, enough to place SAPOL's reputation at risk. He notes management's emphasis on customer service and comments: "I can't see how anybody who walks into our entrance area can really feel as if they matter.
"They come in here to talk to police prosecutors about some of the most sensitive, horrific things that have ever happened to them."
The tragedy, Ramm believes, is that those people's special needs aren't being met in "the first instance". It's as a result of that failing that he believes SAPOL's reputation may suffer.
So, with its influence over morale, health, reputations and careers, the building's future must loom large in the minds of those it affects. Ramm believes that SAPOL management needs to "look at itself" and ask why prosecution personnel work in such appalling conditions. At the same time, however, he's satisfied that management understands the accommodation issue and is affording it due attention.
Curiously, SAPOL hasn't yet briefed the Police Association on its intentions for the building. But, briefings or not, the Association intends to act. Peter Alexander says the situation requires "drastic action", and adds: "In the life of the new government, it is an issue that we'll be taking up directly with the Police Minister."
[End]
