The last of their kind

Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann

Photography: Jesse Wray McCann and supplied

For 65 years, the work of Victoria Police reservists has helped operational police stay on the beat instead of at the station doing administrative work.

But with the organisation’s final two remaining reservists – Garth Smith and Crystal Croxford – coming to the end of their careers, the role will follow them out the door.

The role of Victoria Police reservist was created in 1957 after it was recognised that frontline police were too bogged down with administrative duties.

The role was exclusively for former police officers to re-join the organisation in a nonfrontline capacity.

There have been 562 reservists since the program’s inception and they performed a broad range of tasks as needed by the station or division they were allocated to.

The final new reservist was appointed in 1991, with Victorian Public Service employees now having taken on most of their duties.

There are now just two reservists remaining in the whole organisation, Garth Smith and Crystal Croxford, who are nearing the end of their long careers.

Garth Smith

To help his police colleagues perform at their best on the frontline, Reservist Garth Smith makes sure they’re ticking along both administratively and mentally.

For more than 30 years, Reservist Smith has been a beloved and crucial fixture at Geelong Police Station.

He first graduated as a constable in 1966, left the force in 1973, returned as a reservist in 1986 and has been based at Geelong since 1991.

The 77-year-old looks after the station’s vehicle fleet, equipment such as radios and breathalysers, and any other administrative duties to help lighten the load on police officers.

Reservist Garth Smith

Photo: Jesse Wray-McCann

“I just want to make sure the members are out on the road and not worrying about these little items like getting a breathalyser fixed or being tied up driving a car up to Brunswick just to swap it over,” Reservist Smith said.

“They should be able to come in and start their shift focused on the main thing – preventing crime.

“There are plenty of little things I do to help keep the station running.”

One thing that keeps the station running at its best is good morale, and any officer who has worked at Geelong will agree, Reservist Smith’s best work is done with people.

He actively goes out of his way to get to know his colleagues and keep their spirits up.

“I like to encourage everyone who works here, especially the younger ones because they face a lot of difficult stuff in this job and it can get you down,” he said.

“So I like to be always around encouraging them and asking how they’re going.”

Reservist Garth Smith

Photo: Jesse Wray-McCann

Acting Sergeant Sarah Boore said Reservist Smith was a “true one-of-akind gentleman” and his impact on the officers at Geelong was incalculable.

“We so often talk about people being foundations of stations, but Garth is a true foundation,” A/Sgt Boore said.

“He knows everyone from the cleaner and first-day constable, right through to the superintendent by first name.

“Not only that, he knows and values the members as people, knowing their families, sporting habits and outside interests.

“Every morning without fail, Garth greets everyone with a smile and cheeky comment, and he loves nothing more than getting on the stations PA system to announce someone’s birthday with a background story that is so far removed from the truth that laughter fills the corridors.”

Reservist Smith, who is beginning to think about retirement, feels the same way about his colleagues.

“I’ve started taking some of my long service leave on Fridays and Mondays so that I can be ready for retirement,” he said.

“But I must admit, when I’m off work, I do miss it.

“It’s like a family at the station and I just love them all.”

Crystal Croxford

In the mid-1970s, Reservist Crystal Croxford had been a police officer for six years when she left Victoria Police to start a family.

She was enjoying her time as a senior constable in the Police Women’s Division at the Russell Street headquarters, but she knew at the time she wouldn’t be able to both look after her kids and continue her career.

“I could have come back, but I couldn’t do the shift work that was required, and there weren't childcare facilities back in those days like there are now,” Reservist Croxford said.

Reservist Crystal Croxford

Photo: Jesse Wray-McCann

“My family was really important to me and it was important for me to be a stay-at-home mum.”

But in 1987, she returned to work with her blue family at Victoria Police in the role of reservist at Sunbury Police Station, where she continues to work today at the age of 75.

“It was great to have the opportunity to continue on the career path I started but in a way that allowed me to still be there for my family,” Reservist Croxford said.

“I loved being back and loved the camaraderie here.”

Reservist Croxford has been responsible for many different tasks during her 35 years at Sunbury, including registering trucks before VicRoads took over that role, and managing the Sunbury Police Community Register.

Reservist Crystal Croxford when she joined Victoria Police.

Photo: Supplied

As part of her work with the register, Reservist Croxford coordinates a team of volunteers that regularly checks in on locals by phone who may be elderly, living with disability or who may be socially isolated.

Not only was Reservist Croxford’s previous experience as a police officer helpful for her Sunbury colleagues, but her experience as a mother was also highly sought after.

“I used to say that I was like a mother to everyone here at the station, and some of them actually used to call me mum,” she said.

For many years, next to Reservist Croxford’s desk was a yellow chair that almost acted like a therapist’s couch.

“There were members with young families who would have dramas before they came in to work, because working full-time as a police officer with kids is not easy,” she said.

“They'd come in and sit on the yellow chair and pour their heart out to me.”

Senior Sergeant Brad Towers has known Reservist Croxford for many years and said she was legendary at Sunbury.

So much so that the station’s annual ‘Person of the Year Award’ is named the Crystal Croxford Award in her honour.

“Crystal is the glue that holds Sunbury Police Station together,” Sen Sgt Towers said.

“There have been plenty of senior sergeants come and go at Sunbury over the decades, but Crystal is the real officer in charge.”

Reservist Croxford said she is incredibly grateful Victoria Police has given her the opportunity to continue working at her age, and she plans to keep on going.

“My job is like the best job in the world. That's why I'm still here,” she said.