Building a multicultural police force

The Victoria Police are targeting CALD communities – in their new recruitment campaign

BY PREETI JABBAL

In their largest ever recruitment campaign, the Victoria Police are seeking men and women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

“We want our police to be reflective of the diverse community we serve,” Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said at the launch of the campaign recently.

“We want to hear from people of all ages, life and work experiences, level of education and qualification. We are keen to recruit the right people regardless of any factors like racial, language, sexuality, gender, cultural or belief system differences. We want to hear from women and men, and people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds,” he said.

This police force is seeking 1700 new recruits to join their team of 11,500 police members.

While addressing members of multicultural media the evening before the formal launch, Simon Overland emphasised the diversity of Victoria Police and briefly touched on his own experiences within the department.

“People looked at me and passed remarks like ‘You are so little, so petite, how can you become a Policewoman?

“As a member of the Police you can do many different things, each of them challenging and rewarding,” he said. “It can be a series of careers within the same organisations with opportunities to learn and grow with a variety of roles. There are many different things I have done in my time ranging from walking the beat as a uniformed constable to my role now, running a very significant organisation of thousands of people operating over a budget of more than $2 billion per annum and dealing with some very complex social issues”.

One offender even went on to challenge me by saying ‘You don’t have any biceps, why should I listen to you?’ To which I answered, I may not have biceps but I definitely have brain cells, now get moving!”

Constable Sonali Deshpande

He then introduced Constable Sonali Deshpande, one of the first women with an Indian background to join Victoria Police.

Petite and friendly, Sonali smiled as she recalled her experiences on the streets of Melbourne as part of her Police beat. “People looked at me and passed remarks like ‘You are so little, so petite, how can you become a Policewoman? One offender even went on to challenge me by saying ‘You don’t have any biceps, why should I listen to you?’ To which I answered, I may not have biceps but I definitely have brain cells, now get moving! Every day brings a new challenge and that is the best thing about this job,” claimed Sonali.

Sonali arrived in Australia in 2003. Surprisingly, she holds a degree in medicine and had worked as a doctor in India for a year before coming to Australia.

“I did not fancy being restricted to handing out prescriptions to patients every day, so I started looking for an alternative career,” Sonali said. She came across an advertisement seeking new recruits in the Police department, and rang them out of curiosity. Having always found the policing process fascinating and interesting – thanks to TV shows such as CSI - she decided to apply. At that time she had only been in the country for three months and did not hold permanent residency.

While she waited for her PR to come through, she took to the gym to improve her fitness. She also learnt to swim and up-skilled herself in English. Her attempts proved successful and she joined the Victorian Police training. “The course was tough, yes, but I cleared it with determination and hard work,” she said with pride.

Sonali has worked for Victoria Police for five years now.

But her commitment to medicine still remains strong: Sonali also works casually as a health educator in the multicultural section of women’s health.

“I am often asked why I chose policing over medicine and I always say that according to me both professions share the same vision of serving the community. They follow different procedures towards the same outcome. For me it was a matter of transferring my medical skills to my policing job. I now have the flexibility of working as a policewoman while continuing working in community health”.

Sonali thought at first that she could use her knowledge to work in the forensic department, but after having worked in various fields within the organisation she has decided to work in investigation. She is currently training to become a detective.

The attendees at the launch were shown a preview of the 60-second ad campaign that is now running on local TV and radio channels. Simon Overland referred potential candidates to the Vic Police website where they can access information about the recruitment campaign including personal stories of people from various backgrounds who, like Sonali, have found a fulfilling career with Vic Police. The website outlines how after gaining some good grounding in general duties of policing, there are opportunities to pursue a variety of roles within the organisation. Some specialist areas include water police, dog squads, and Crime Scene Officers (CSOs), Operations Response Unit (OR U0), state highway patrol or air wing.

And in all of this, police officers from diverse backgrounds can contribute so much more. Constable Deshpande herself can speak four languages and has found that very helpful in her role. “The community in Victoria is very diverse. As a police officer I have often used my language skills to communicate and find solutions. I strongly believe Police members from multicultural backgrounds add their unique perspectives and experiences to the police force. They have a large responsibility to connect the public with the police. On one hand they communicate law enforcement to the community; on the other; they help Vic Police to understand the culture of various communities. This helps a lot in addressing social issues. We do need people from different backgrounds in Victoria Police,” she said as she wrapped up her speech. “So aspirants from all backgrounds please think about it, act on it, and jump on board - we would like to see you here”.