Challenging Rewarding Policing, now hiring

My name is Joseph Bicevskis. I'm a senior constable working at Burpengary scenes of crime. I did a Bachelor of Science majoring in genetics and I was looking at work in that field and in that time after I'd gotten my degree I ended up on a jury for a murder trial, and a scientific officer from the QPS gave her credentials which were very similar to what I had already done. So during that trial I was like, wow, I could, I could do that that seems really interesting. I joined, got into the academy, you finish your academy training and then you have to do a certain number of years on the road as a general duties officer and I think that's important because I think if you go straight into forensics you don't really have an understanding of how things interconnect and why certain things are more important. You don't necessarily need a background in science to become a scenes of crime officer. It is beneficial but it's not necessary. You go out, you do photographs and collect fingerprints and DNA swabs and any sort of tools or anything that are left behind. Your job as a forensic officer is to collect that evidence but it's also to have that positive interaction with the community and I found actually since coming from general duties it's quite nice because everyone that you go to is happy that you're there. Once you get into forensic there's quite a number of, um, sort of different areas that you can further specialise in. You can become a scientific officer, there's also ballistics and then of course there's the fingerprint bureau which is I think it's another four years training to become a fingerprint expert. So I'm interested in fingerprints. I'm hoping this year sometime that I'll be able to get a position in the fingerprint bureau. it's like a visual puzzle, it's like doing puzzles all day and it's sort of very satisfying when you, when you solve a puzzle so it's, it's like getting that satisfaction multiple times throughout the day. There are parts of the job that are quite confronting. I've always found there's there's quite a bit of support. I was never really interested in photography prior but it's kind of kick-started, uh, an interest in my own life in photography. So now I bought my old camera from my last office, you know, I take photos of my own time now and a lot of forensics officers end up doing that because it is something that you're doing all the time. It's given me a hobby I guess, from my job.

My name's Latisha Whalan. I'm an acting sergeant in the crime prevention programs unit in police headquarters in Brisbane. I am a First Nations police officer. I grew up on a mission in South Australia for a lot of my younger years, moved to Queensland when I was about 14 years old. I originally joined the QPS in 2010 as an admin officer first before joining the police. Being sworn in as a police officer was one of the proudest moments in my life. I did a few years in the Logan District before I transferred to the Gold Coast District which is where I did majority of my police work. I've always had a passion for helping people. I've always known that as a police officer your words have a lot of weight so when Project Booyah came up and it was working with at-risk youth and disengaged youth, it was perfect. It made sense to me that giving back to the younger generations was where my policing career needed to be. I'm naturally quite a nurturing person but I also don't take any crap either and I think these kids sometimes need that person that's going to tell them right and wrong but still create such a safe place where they can explore that and fail forward, I guess. I came across a young gentleman who was 13 at the time he was in an abandoned house and he was obviously homeless and we couldn't find where his mom or his dad was. He was amazing, he was so respectful, lovely. Fast forward six months and I was recruiting for Booyah, this young gentleman showed up at my seminar. He successfully completed Project Booyah with me. He's an adult now and he's got a job and he's doing really really well and he often messages me randomly saying, you know you saved me. If someone was to ask me about a career in policing I would say absolutely do it because it is seriously the best job in the world. I honestly think there's a place for everyone in our service. I've mentored hundreds of young children and changed lives, I believe, so to watch the work that you do play out within the community and have such a significant ripple effect is just something that you can never place a value on. Um, you genuinely do make a difference.

My name is Jonghyun Bae and I'm currently working at Springfield Police Station as a constable. Becoming a police officer was always my dream since I was a child. I always loved helping other people, talking to other people. My family came to Australia back in 2006. I'm actually the first police officer or involved with the law enforcement in the entire family. They are concerned, obviously for some of the safety issues, but they support me for what I do and they know that it's something I love to do so they're very supportive. I study at QUT, major in criminology, and I applied for a police liaison position that came up whilst I was studying. Being a first Korean-speaking police liaison officer is something that I'm very proud of. The fact that I was able to help the people from the same culture who might have a bit of a difficulties in speaking or understanding English, I think that experience assisted me with being a police officer today as well. Once I finished my degree I applied to become an operational police officer and then I went through a recruiting process and, yeah, after about a year I was working. It's definitely an exciting career which is not about, you know, going after bad people. It could be community engagement or it could be dealing with the children or sometimes it could be just going out to a country town and yeah have a yarn with the local people. The job comes with a lot of different opportunities and experiences and the more challenges you get and, you know, the more chances you get to actually, um, grow as a person and also, you know, become more capable police officer. If it's something that you want to do in, with your life or with your career then I'd strongly suggest that you apply. It's worth it and it really is an exciting career and once you're in the QPS you get a lot of different opportunities to develop your career as well, so yeah if you're thinking about it I'd strongly suggest that you do it.

My name is Georgia Kelly. I'm a constable at Logan Central police station. I've been a sworn officer for just over a year now, like a year and two weeks. This past year has been a whirlwind. The personality mix like when I was going through the academy, it was a bit all over the show, like yeah there were some people like people from the Army but then there was other people that were school teachers so you go from needing to be confident but then you also need humility and kindness. I want to have a thousand careers in the police. I don't want to have to say I did like one thing. I think I'm probably more interested in more of like a community engagement role. I prefer talking to people and you know going to schools is like the most enjoyable and thrilling thing that you could see because you're like you're you really are a role model to these kids. As soon as you see their little faces light up and they want to ask you a thousand questions, it's a rewarding feeling, it's a really great feeling. A really special moment, I was sitting with this aggrieved we had taken away from a really horrible situation and I left the room and when I came back she, she had this little letter for me and this little drawing and it said it was like a quote of, essentially, like, just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to stay and it was sort of a moment when you sit back and you're like, wow, I've made a difference to her life. It's a moment that I will always remember and yeah I'm sure I've made an impact on her. That's probably the most rewarding experience I've had. I've been in a few more wrestles and foot chases than I thought, um, but I wouldn't change it. I, you know, you have to have those highs and those lows and it's sort of that feeling at the end of the day when you take off the kit and you take off your vest and you're driving in your car on the way home and you just think, you know, you make a reflection of yourself, wow, I think I, you know, it may not have been a huge impact or, you know, difference I made but it was something, because something's better than nothing at the end of the day.

My name's April Albury. I'm a plain clothes senior constable at the Mackay Criminal Investigation Branch. I grew up in a little town called Tieri which is a mining town just west of here. I think my personality was just naturally drawn to the police. I was in university at the time and I just wasn't happy doing that. I think I heard a recruitment ad and when I thought about it I was just drawn to it. My parents and my siblings weren't surprised when I told them because they agree that I'm, my personality suits it. I think my favourite thing about my current role is learning about all the different ways to investigate different offences. There's just so many different ways to get the information that you need and I still don't even know half of it, so it's learning all of that is the best part. I first joined the QPS women's rugby league in my first year. I randomly got a phone call from none other than Steph Hancock and she said I'm putting a team together to play the firies. I think we end up smashing 'em 40-something nil, yeah, and it just grew from there. Sport gave me a lot of the characteristics I have now and that's really helped me through the police as well. It's taught me how to work in a team, it's taught me discipline, hard work. There's not just rugby league though, there's police AFL, there's golf tournaments that people compete in. There's heaps. After working on an investigation and finally getting justice for your victim is essentially why you do this job, why you become an investigator, and the closure that it can give some people is priceless. It's -  they need us to be able to move on sometimes and they need us to hear their story. I'm really happy that I've joined the police. I think I'll be in this job for a long time. It really suits me and the pathways in the police, there's just so many. I think that's why it is easy to stay in the police for so long, because if you're outside life changes, there's always a different role that you can, you can take to suit your lifestyle.

I'm Constable Nicholas Lette from Mackay Police Station in general duties. I, um, used to work at a radio station here in Mackay so I was driving around, uh, like a radio station van, giving away cream buns and iced coffees and that sort of stuff. So that's a little bit, I guess, not your conventional career pathway into the police, you could say. It was never really in the pipeline for me. It was a conversation on the couch one night, Mom and Dad just said hey, you know, you'd actually be a pretty good police officer and, um, from there watched a few YouTube videos, jumped online, uh, had a look and I thought, you know what I'll give it a crack, and it's everything I thought it would be and and much more. The academy was a lot of fun. I essentially saw it as living with a bunch of my mates for the six months that I was there and learning lots, that's for sure. The Townsville Academy is literally like built almost on the beach, so you look outside those gates and you can see that blue water. It's definitely an ideal location, definitely worse places to be studying to become a police officer.

Being in general duties we could be going to a building fire at one job and the next job it could be a domestic violence job and the next completely different, so it's good because you go to such a wide array of jobs it opens your eyes to everything you could do and may end up doing as a police officer. There's probably a million things that I'd love to be able to do because I think, you know, doggies would be cool or go into the scenes of crime would be interesting as well, but that's really the beauty of it, there's so many different things you can do. I guess you could say I'm a bit flustered as to exactly where I want to go. For anyone that is halfway there, you know you're not sure if you're going to fit into the job or if you've got what it takes, I literally thought the same thing, you know, just a few years ago and it only took that little spark moment of Mum or Dad saying hey mate, why don't you give this a crack, you know just jump in, give it a go because different personalities definitely have their different niches in this career and there's so many different little pockets and and career opportunities for so many different types of people. So you never know till you really give it a try I'd say. Even just pop into your local police station you know. Yeah we're busy, but we'll always find time to anyone who's looking to join the job and join the family here in the QPS.

My name's Lisa Harris. I'm a senior Constable at Dutton Park Police Station. I had come out to Australia, um, as a backpacker years ago in 2009. I stayed here for a few years, met my wife, Hayley, and then decided to go back to the UK, yeah, actually to join the police and we looked at the options and it was a pretty good deal to come back to Australia and we decided, yep let's go and make a go for it. You know, as corny as it sounds, um, helping people, overarching I think that's the reason that I really like being a police officer. Yeah, it feels quite a purposeful career. Yeah, there are certainly some some jobs, uh, you know kind of bring a smile to your face. So recently we located a beautiful golden retriever dog and there, didn't seem quite right, um, to me as to why it was in this particular situation and did a bit of investigating and found it was a dog that had been stolen from a burglary, um, six months previous. Anyway we seized the dog, found the owner from the microchip and made a phone call to an extremely happy owner. I applied for a job at Dutton Park CIB, um yeah Criminal Investigation Branch, and I've been successful in securing a spot there, so I'll start as a plain clothes senior constable and then I'll do my detective training and hopefully after about three, four years I'll become a detective. So I'm unashamed to say you know even growing up watched all those British crime dramas, Prime Suspect and Taggart and Inspector Morse and all of those and yeah I definitely always wanted to become a detective, that was, that was the goal and I can't quite believe I've secured a spot. I'm really happy about that. I think you do enter through one door which is general duties and you, that's your base level training and, you know, your bread and butter of policing and then you're right, the, the opportunities after that, the amount of doors that are open to or available to you, um, are endless, you know, the amount of departments within policing is unbelievable.

My name is Sharon and I'm a second year constable at West End Police Station. I was born in China and when I was a child I loved reading detective books - Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, Frederick Hitchcock. Those detective books just make me feel how cool they are, to solve the crimes and catch the criminals. I moved to the United States to get my bachelor degree of hotel and tourism management. I've been to more than 20 countries and I, when I was 25, I just, I want to settle down so I came to Australia and settled down in Queensland. I remembered I was during Covid, I was sitting in a room and thinking to myself that, well there's a global pandemics going on, who knows what'll happen tomorrow, so I better do something that I always want to do, rather than sitting around ,wait for it. So I just log in my computer, apply for QPS that day. I got this phone call from a private number eight o'clock in the morning and the lady on the phone to say, hey Sharon, we're happy to offer you this position at the Oxley Academy, do you want to come, and that was a life-changing phone call, changed my life completely. I was on Contra shift 8 to 4 and this young Chinese girl just walked in the station, really distressed and she does not speak much English, so she was crying and then she was telling me that story that how she being harassed by her ex-boyfriend for the last four months. So I took her statement draft and the job eventually gave it to, hand it over to Crime Investigation Branch which we call the CIB, and offender was arrested and charged. I remember that day he got arrested, that's one of the best day in my career. I was so happy and I was, got that feeling, well I helped someone, I made the change. That's one of the really big thing to me as well. Always remember through that person, your victim, even just normal public, as how you want your family be treated. But definitely, it's like a dream now, every day feels like living in a dream.