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Drawn to the job
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Editorial: Grant Condon
Ask Dimpy Oliver to describe herself and you’ll soon hear why she is so well suited to life as a Victoria Police Protective Services Officer (PSO).
“I consider myself a good listener, someone who has a lot of compassion and empathy, a giver, and someone who has the ability to calm others,” PSO Oliver said.
“I think I also have good social awareness; I don’t judge people at work or in my private life.”
But while she possesses all the sought-after traits one would traditionally look for in an officer of Victoria Police, PSO Oliver’s journey to the force is less conventional.
It started in Delhi, India, some 10,000 kilometres from Melbourne. It was 2010 when PSO Oliver was pregnant with her first child and working as a software engineer in India’s capital, that she and her husband made the decision to move to Australia in search of a better work-life balance.
Working in IT as an accessibility consultant and having another child after settling in Australia, it was 2017 when PSO Oliver applied to join Victoria Police.
“I didn’t expect a quick response, but to my surprise I had a response from recruitment within hours, stating I had three months to sit the entrance exam. I hadn’t even told my husband that I was considering a career change. I was waiting for the weekend to arrive to discuss it with him, but I only lasted for three days before I told him,” PSO Oliver said.
“When I did, he was not surprised. He was aware of my admiration for emergency service workers and my zeal to help the community, but was concerned about my safety and wellbeing.
I took the plunge, not only to serve the community but to be a role model for my children.
“I knew joining Victoria Police would also allow me to learn more about Australia, its people, culture and help me integrate in the community.”
The career change provided all those things and now, after three years of loving her new career with Victoria Police, PSO Oliver is encouraging others to take the plunge and apply to become a PSO.
She’s one of the faces of a new series of animations released by Victoria Police, aimed at attracting more females to the PSO role.
The How I got here animations showcase several women working as PSOs, how they came to join Victoria Police, and how the unique role is suitable to a wide range of people.
As well as being a proud mother and Protective Services Officer, Dimpy Oliver is now the illustrated face of a series of animations aimed at showcasing the role of PSOs to the community.
A key focus of PSO Oliver’s animation is how she balances the job that has her spending most nights patrolling train stations across Melbourne, with raising her two young daughters, aged 9 and 11.
While she admits it hasn’t always been easy balancing her duty as a mother alongside her sworn duty as a PSO and that there were initially concerns for her safety from her husband and extended family, PSO Oliver has managed to find a solution to all the challenges.
“My children and my husband are very proud of me when they get to talk about me and what I do,” she said.
“I think it shows my daughters that being independent is important and looking after yourself and the community is important.
“I have a journal for each of my children and every day before I leave for work, I write them a message in their book and hide it under their pillows or somewhere in the house.
As soon as they come home from school, they find the journal and write a message for me and hide it for me to find when I get home from work.
“Even though I’m not physically in the house, I have a presence and connection to my family through the journal.”
Ultimately, PSO Oliver wants more people like herself – people from different backgrounds and walks of life – standing next to her in uniform.
“There are a lot of people out there who need your help or someone to brighten their day,” she said.
“If that is something you want to do, this job allows you to do it.”
