IN his book “Jack Knife – The Crashing of a Policeman”, author/former Senior Constable Paul Horner details the harsh realities of life on the force, telling how his dream job eventually became his nightmare – literally!

Mr Horner’s career began in Goulburn in 1997. He joined the Police Force at the age of just 23 and studied at the local Academy. After completing his training, he was transferred to Sydney where he worked some of the city’s toughest beats including both the Mt Druitt and Cabramatta Local Area Commands.

While working at Mt Druitt, he became involved in the Tactical Action Group, or TAG Team as it was more commonly known, which was a proactive taskforce designed to help prevent crimes from happening.

He was later transferred to Bourke, which had an extremely high crime rate. It was well above the state average for larceny, sexual assault, breaking and entering, common assault and slew of other serious offences. The streets were out of control so the decision was made to establish a TAG Team and because of his experience in Sydney, Mr Horner was put in charge of it.

With up to six officers working beneath him, he set about taking on the worst crooks the town had to offer.

“TAG Teams do different things depending on their locality,” he said.

“At Bourke it was primarily taking care of High Risk Offenders or people who have lengthy criminal histories… generally they would have one page of criminal history for every year of their lives…and we’re talking about serious offences.

“It was our job, primarily, to keep our eye on them, search them, legally harass them, just generally make sure they were doing the right thing, because these were the guys who were generally getting themselves into trouble and running amok through town.”

But ruffling the feathers of the criminals was more like kicking a hornet’s nest. Most of the people they were targeting were quite violent people, and that violence often spilled over.

Mr Horner says by the end of his three years in Bourke he felt more like a boxer than a police officer.

“At the end of the day, when you were dealing with people who were violent in nature, if they got into your face and you ended up getting into a bit of a fight, or if there was a struggle during the course of an arrest, you had to do what you needed to do to affect the course of the arrest. So it became pretty messy sometimes, there was always stuff like that going on,” he said.

“Because you were living in amongst the same community that you were working in a lot of them took the whole thing very personally…

“Because I was at Bourke, I never had the chance to be anonymous because I was living in the town I was working in…(and) the crooks really did learn to hate you. When you’re doing the proactive stuff and you are turning up every day, and you’re in their faces every day, and they are seeing the same cop every day, they just hate you.

“I had a vendetta out against me at the end of my time (in Bourke) where there were a group of guys who were going to towel me up or bash or even kill me….

“It flowed into your personal life and you never felt like you could rest. You were always on edge and hyper vigilant… I couldn’t even go down to the shops at one stage without having bottles or bricks or rocks thrown at me, or being verbally abused. I had my car smashed up once…

“It was very hard. I quite often had threats made (not only) against me but also against my wife. For example, people would say, ‘Hey Horner ya dog! I’m gunna rape your missus, I’m gunna burn down your house, I’m gunna poison your dog!’ It just happened fairly frequently.”

However, when he was seriously injured in the line of duty his life began to spiral out of control.

“I had 10 months left on my tenure (at Bourke) and I ran an operation where we were after some crooks who refused to hand themselves in. They knew they were going to go jail. So, there was no other way to get them other than to go down to where they were and drag them out,” he said.

“During the course of this operation, I got a full beer bottle thrown into my face and it smashed me up really bad. I ended up having to have a couple of months off work. I had to have surgery on my nose, and I have ongoing dental problems.”

Following the incident Mr Horner was offered a compassionate transfer by NSW Police Force management. He finally agreed to accept it. However, by this time they had changed their minds. In frustration, he revoked his report and stayed on until the end of his tenure in Bourke, but he was never really the same.

He later moved to Byron Bay Local Area Command and his hyper vigilance got worse. He became intolerant of any form of threats, often becoming heavy handed, and he became a full blown alcoholic, self-medicating to deal with his problems.

His wife left him, and his behaviour outside of work also deteriorated. He was constantly getting involved in pub fights. However, when he was charged with drink driving he was forced to go on stress leave. It was then that he was diagnosed with PTSD and committed to a mental health facility.

While there, he was deemed not fit to return to duty. Mr Horner has since got his life back together and learnt more about his disorder, as well as its prevalence amongst police officers.

He now works with the Queensland Police Force, giving PTSD presentations to officers, and is currently in negotiations with the NSW Police to do the same. He believes the amount of trauma officers are exposed to on a day to day basis puts them at a high risk of the disorder, and that their welfare and well-being should be a shared responsibility.

He said new policies need to be put in place and officers need to equip themselves with the tools required to protect themselves as best they can. He also hopes to return to the Goulburn Police College and speak directly to its student.

Jack Knife – The Crashing of a Policeman is currently available through Zeus Publications and is being sold at Town and Country Books of Goulburn.

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