I was surprised to receive two telephone calls recently from those who heard my wife had left me for a younger person. I later met a friend who asked if I had heard the rumours. As he was well aware she' just left Hong Kong to spend Easter with my son and that I would soon be joining them, I asked: "Where did you hear this?". He gave me an incredulous look and replied "Boundary Street". He had not even corrected the rumour.

Why was it, I wondered, staff opinion surveys compiled by expert consultants tell us we need to communicate better. But within minutes of being caught with your trousers down or fouling up, everyone in the District knows about it. Worse still, after an hour you can guarantee Regional HQs will know and by the end of the shift, even the room boy in Police Headquarters.

It seems bad news or a negative comment travels fast but good news dissipates within hours. The exception, of course, being good-news statistics or arrests, pushed on by supervisory pride. These go all the way to the top of the organisation within hours. In an emergency, our communication systems and lines of command are second to none, so too is the accuracy of the information we pass.

As an organisation we communicate well. From my perspective, I believe the issue is actually not so much how we communicate, but what we communicate. We seem to focus on the negative and ignore the positive. When was the last time you went home and said something positive like " I had a great day today", rather than go over what went wrong and how the profession is becoming more of a job?

I know to some, it may appear I am coming very close to being born again. But so what? I have a valid opinion and I am not afraid to give it. If my friend was more sure of himself he could have stood up for me and pointed out the rumour of my wife was rubbish. But he did not want to put his head above the grass in case the mower was coming.

I think we can put our minds into gear before we put our mouths into motion. We can ask ourselves whether the story is likely to be true, but more importantly, 'Do we really need to repeat it?' I like the phrase "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything". I think we do more damage to ourselves and the organisation by pushing the negative rumours, rather than the positive ones. We take simple statements and look for the worst in them rather than the best. We often choose to believe rumours and stories that in the cold light of day, our knowledge and experience tells us are manure. More significantly, when we have an opinion or view, we hide it just in case it does not fit with the current thinking. Good communication is our life blood and I know we can do far better. We need to listen to the views of others at all ranks and make sensible judgement calls on what we have heard.

What about you? If you have any comments on this or any other PIG PEN issue, contact Steve or OffBeat, we' love to hear from you.

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