MANAGEMENT in the New South Wales police force is getting a wake-up call from a former officer who served in Bourke.
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Paul Horner, 38, was in Dubbo this week as part of a statewide tour to spread the word about his revealing memoirs as a former policeman.
Jack Knife - The Crashing of a Policeman details his 11 years in service and the internal battles that ensued.
His time in Bourke was what he called “the beginning of the end”, the major cause behind his diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
“Bourke was a really violent town, I had rocks and beer bottles thrown at me as I walked down the street on my days off,” Mr Horner said.
Medically discharged from the force in 2008, Mr Horner still feels a stigma surrounds his illnesses.
“It can be very disheartening, very embarrassing, very degrading, especially when you’ve given more than your all because you’ve wrecked yourself.”
Mr Horner has not been able to hold a job and is unlikely to ever return to the NSW police force. He wrote the book as a form of therapy, which details a mixed bag of his work as a target action group leader and general duties police officer.
In his time served at Bourke, Mount Druitt, Cabramatta and Byron Bay, from 1997 to 2008, Mr Horner said there was a lack of support and felt the system was a failure. Holding no doubt that officers still suffer on and off the job he intends to try and improve the situation.
“If anything they (NSW Police) were initially ignoring me, but I’m in negotiations with them now to host talks and it’s looking positive,” Mr Horner said.
He has had better success with Queensland Police, negotiating regular talks throughout 2012. Now he wants to get the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder out there to his home state.
“I want to try and educate police and their families so they don’t have to go through all that others have,” he said.
Jack Knife - The Crashing of a Policeman is available for purchase at The Book Connection on Macquarie Street.