Video Transcript - Why Do Australian Police Use the WRONG Tense?Have you ever had one of those moments where you think you know a grammar point inside out... and then somebody shows you an example that completely throws you?
Well, that's exactly what happened to me this week.
A big thank you to one of my followers, Sarah McKernan, who sent me something I'd never come across before.
I've taught the present perfect for years. I've trained teachers for years. And yet somehow this had completely passed me by. Let me show you.
If I asked you which of these sounds more natural if you’re telling someone about something that happened a few days ago.
The offender has entered the shop, has approached the counter and has demanded money.
Or...
The offender entered the shop, approached the counter and demanded money.
Most English teachers would probably say the second.
After all, we're telling a completed sequence of events. That's exactly what the simple past is for. But here's the interesting part. Australian police media releases very often use the first version.
They'll say things like: The offender has entered the premises, has approached the cashier and has demanded cash.
And this isn’t a one-off rogue police officer who’s got a thing for the present perfect. It happens consistently. Enough that linguists have noticed. It’s been reported in an academic paper by Marie-Eve Ritz and Dulcie Engel called The Perfect Crime? Illicit Uses of the Present Perfect in Australian Police Media Releases.
Now the word illicit here doesn't mean illegal! It means the use isn't licensed by the traditional rules of English grammar.
According to the grammar books, the present perfect normally isn't used to narrate a sequence of completed past events like this. So why do the police do it?
It’s probably quite obvious. Instead of treating the robbery as a finished story, the present perfect keeps it connected to the present. It makes the incident sound active. The investigation is ongoing. The offender may still be out there. It feels more immediate.
Interestingly, police reports often switch back to the simple past when they start describing background details.
For example: The offender has approached the counter and has demanded cash. He was wearing a black hoodie and fled on a bicycle.
So they're using different tenses for different discourse purposes. So what’s interesting in a wider sense here is that tense isn’t only about time, it’s about how we choose to present information.
What do we want the listener to focus on? How do we frame the events?
I’m definitely not suggesting you start telling your learners to use the present perfect like this. Outside this very specific register, I think it’d sound pretty unusual to most English speakers.
But if you’re a bit of a grammar geek, it’s interesting to see that language is a living system that different communities adapt to suit different communicative purposes.
So thank you again to Sarah McKernan for introducing me to something new. It's always great to discover there's still something that can surprise me.
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