A fair effort

Editorial: Cassandra Stanghi

Photography: Supplied

It’s no surprise Commander Debra Robertson chose a career in policing – the core values she has carried through her life always pointed in that direction.

“It’s a bit clichéd, but I just don’t like unfairness. That sense of being anchored to what’s fair and what’s not has always been my motivation and driver,” Cmdr Robertson said.

With grand ambitions to pursue justice and fairness in the police force, Cmdr Robertson finished school in the early 1980s and took up studies in nursing to bide her time until she reached the minimum entry age of 20 years for female recruits at the time.

Nearly two years into her nursing studies, Cmdr Robertson got the news she’d been waiting for: the force’s minimum entry age for women had been lowered.

“As soon as they dropped the age, I put my application in and never looked back,” she said.

Cmdr Robertson’s policing career began in 1983 with stints in busy Fitzroy and Brunswick. She then qualified as a detective, which opened the door to some of her most rewarding work.

“As a young detective, getting my hands on long-standing sex crime matters and being able to bring them to resolution, there was a great deal of satisfaction in holding those offenders to account,” she said.

“I vividly remember a case I worked on for two years, which turned out to be quite a nasty incest matter that was 30 years old.

“To be involved in the unravelling of that and holding somebody to account for their terrible behaviour was really satisfying.”

Cmdr Debra Robertson has actively sought out new and unfamiliar experiences in her 40 years with Victoria Police, including a stint in road policing.

Photo: Supplied

As she progressed through her years as a detective while concurrently starting a family, Cmdr Robertson found herself juggling work and home life.

While part-time work is a key pillar of employment flexibility and commonplace across Victoria Police in 2023, this wasn’t the case 25 years ago when Cmdr Robertson sought to reduce her working week by one day to spend more time with her young family.

At that time, detectives were considered ineligible for part-time arrangements and her application was declined.

Firm in her belief that detective work and spending more time with family were not mutually exclusive, Cmdr Robertson fought tirelessly for detectives to be eligible for part-time work.

Cmdr Robertson recalls this period of her career as challenging, but she had the ultimate drive to keep going.

“During that time, my daughter came home from kindergarten with a family portrait she’d drawn, and I wasn’t in it,” she said.

“I asked her, ‘where’s Mummy?’, and she replied, ‘Mummy’s at work’.

“That really motivated me to keep going, to make sure I wasn’t missing from my picture.”

Cmdr Robertson’s determination resulted in part-time employment for detectives becoming commonplace for both men and women across Victoria Police.

Her relentless advocacy for equality saw Cmdr Robertson inducted into the prestigious Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2022.

Another pivotal moment for Cmdr Robertson came when she was a newly promoted inspector in the Darebin Police Service Area. A youth resource officer invited her to a Friday night event in the area hosted by Blue Light Victoria.

Blue Light was formed by police in Melbourne’s east in 1976, starting as a drug and alcohol-free disco supervised by police and growing exponentially into a proactive engagement program for young people across the state.

Attending the local event in 2011 sparked a sense of duty for Cmdr Robertson.

“It was such a powerful experience to see kids conversing with police in a non-confrontational way. I saw the trust building over time, I saw the sad bit where there were kids left behind by their parents that night and I saw the members on the van showing compassion to those kids and getting them home safely.

“I could see these kids deserved a fair go and I said to my colleague who invited me that night, ‘tell me how I can help’.”

That evening put Cmdr Robertson on a path to begin her 11-year tenure as president of Blue Light until the end of 2022. Among the not-for-profit organisation’s many activities, Blue Light has delivered hundreds of programs in primary and secondary schools at which police engage with students about youth-centric topics such as sexting, drug and alcohol use and family violence.

Cmdr Robertson said the young participants weren’t the only people to benefit from Blue Light’s school-based programs.

“It’s been great to see schools report less truancy on the days our programs are running, but another interesting thing that’s fallen out of this has been the value our police members have gotten from a mental health perspective,” she said.

In her working life, Cmdr Robertson has risen through the ranks of Victoria Police, fuelled by her passion for gaining wideranging experience across many areas of the organisation, including professional standards; transit and public safety; road policing; organised crime; Western Region and now in her current role within Intelligence and Covert Support Command, a position she’s held since mid-2022.

Cmndr Debra Robertson now works within Intelligence and Covert Support Command.

Photo: Supplied

The pursuit of ‘different’ is a common thread in Cmdr Robertson’s career and is evident in her varied work history.

“I count myself pretty lucky to have had the experiences I’ve had along the journey, even when they’ve been unfamiliar or out of my comfort zone at first,” she said.

“One of the things I’ve always tried to do in my career is to get comfortable being uncomfortable. As soon as I started feeling too comfortable in a role, I knew it was time to move on to the next and I really believe that’s where growth comes from.”

While her roles and areas of expertise have evolved throughout her four decades of dedicated policing service, Cmdr Robertson’s overarching ethos has remained solid.

“My approach is pretty simple, and that’s to do my job well and look after each other.

“The community is served better if you’re happy doing what you’re doing, and that’s what this job is all about.”