The 111 Files: Social ills need collective treatment

Inspector Bruce Horne.

Albert Einstein was a certified genius but I'm not, and my boss and my colleagues will cheerfully confirm this. Even though Einstein's theory of relativity is well beyond my intellectual capabilities, some of his other ideas are within my grasp, such as his definition of insanity. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I mention this because over recent months I have been having lots of conversations with all sorts of people to try to work out what else we might be able to do to make our community a safer one. Over the past 10 years there has been a gradual but significant reduction in crime in Rotorua, particularly in the areas of burglary, motor vehicle crime and violence in public places.

But there are two drivers of crime that still present a real challenge. They are family violence and criminal gangs.

Those two problems are not unique to Rotorua, or even New Zealand. Social scientists have even come up with a special name for the most challenging social issues, "wicked problems". The definition of a "wicked problem" is quite long and, to be honest, quite discouraging. The first time I read it my initial reaction was, "So are we just supposed to give up?" But as I cast around for answers I found a ray of hope in the work of Professor Keith Grint.

Keith Grint has done a lot of thinking about how we can work on "wicked problems" in meaningful ways. Grint agrees with Einstein, in that he believes that if we are serious about making things better, we need to be willing to do things differently.

What I really appreciate about Grint is that instead of just promoting theories, he tells stories. Powerful stories about people who have been successful in finding ways to reduce the harm of "wicked problems". Effective leadership and leading change are Professor Grint's area of speciality.

Doing things differently requires courage, imagination and tenacity because when you start asking people to think about doing things differently you often meet resistance - for all sorts of reasons. We can explore that in more detail next week. Finally, I want to leave you with another challenge: How badly do you really want to see Rotorua become a safer community? If someone offered you an opportunity to do something really meaningful in the lives of others, would you be willing to say, "yes", and what might that look like?

Inspector Bruce Horne is the Rotorua police Area Commander.