Goodbye Graham - Farewell to a modern-day Chief Commissioner

Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann

But since July 2015, when he became Victoria Police’s 22nd Chief Commissioner, he has noticed a weight upon on his shoulders in ways he previously hadn’t experienced.

“I’ve been surprised how strongly I’ve felt a sense of responsibility every time a crime befalls our community,” CCP Ashton said.

“Each morning, when I read the daily crime reports, I felt it more deeply than I did as an Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner.

While that sense of responsibility sat heavily, it also drove CCP Ashton to strengthen Victoria Police to become more effective at keeping the community safe.

He spent his five years in the top job developing and leading Victoria Police through a comprehensive modernisation program.

On retiring from Victoria Police, CCP Ashton can look back at those five years as among the most transformative in the organisation’s history.

“Before I started as Chief Commissioner, I felt we had fallen behind in a lot of areas,” he said.

“Up until just a couple of months ago, we were still using fax machines as the main way we communicated our crime reports.

“If you ever needed a sign we were behind the times, you could go downstairs to see a room full of fax machines all buzzing and burring away.

“Whether it was the cars our officers drive, the vests they use, the radios they use, the firearms, the police station upgrades and the education standards, we set out to modernise it all.”

It wasn’t just the modernisation of technology and equipment, but Victoria Police’s culture, too, with the establishment of initiatives such as the Gender Equality and Inclusion Command.

Assistant Commissioner Brett Curran, who worked as CCP Ashton’s Chief of Staff for the majority of his term, said the sheer number of improvements CCP Ashton led over the five years was remarkable.

“If you said at the start of his Chief Commissionership that by the end of it, he would have a Counter Terrorism Command, a new police headquarters, long arms rolled out for members in remote areas, new divvy vans, new helicopters, a completely revamped computer system, body-worn cameras, more than 3,000 additional police, and a raft of different things in the policy area, you would say, ‘That just can’t possibly happen’,” AC Curran said.

“We all have the ability to recognise when something is wrong, but Graham’s great ability is to map out how to fix what’s wrong and use every lever available to get there.”

But CCP Ashton was never content with modernisation if it didn’t lead to genuine improvements to policing on the streets and engaging with communities.

“We were once very highly visible, but then we started climbing off the back of horses and got into cars and put steel and glass between us and the community, and that became a real barrier,” CCP Ashton said.

“We now have technology that means officers can get out of the cars and we need to take advantage of that.

“When you have officers getting involved in things that build their communities and prevent crime in the first place, that’s where you tend to find the best police.”

CCP Ashton said one of the many inspiring examples of this kind of policing is Sergeant Andrew Neil, who worked for years as the lone police officer in the town of Cohuna on the Murray River.

“The work Andy did with initiatives in his community to build a resilience to the drug ice was remarkable,” CCP Ashton said.

“He was also really involved in the cricket club and footy club.

“They had a special event in the town hall where they surprised him and the whole town was there to say thank you with a special award and standing ovation.

“He’s a great example of how someone can embed themselves in a community and, because of that, they are able do a lot of good.”

For all the many achievements of CCP Ashton’s time at the top, perhaps the single most significant difference he has made for both current and former police has been in mental health.

His devotion to improving his colleagues’ wellbeing and support has been unparalleled.

After personally knowing of too many police experiencing mental health issues inflicted by the job, CCP Ashton was determined to create meaningful and lasting change when he started as Chief Commissioner.

“If you’ve worked in a police force for any length of time, you will have worked with or know very well, people who have self-harmed,” he said.

Under CCP Ashton, support and treatment for mental health issues within Victoria Police has been significantly revamped and enhanced.

But it was the organisation’s culture and the negative views towards seeking help that most needed overhauling.

“It used to be that going to the psychologist had a stigma to it,” CCP Ashton said.

“You just would never volunteer to go and talk to a psychologist, ever.

“And if you were made to, you would do it secretly.

“Whereas now, it’s a mandatory part of doing business and very few people have qualms about dealing with psychologists.”

Upon starting his mental health mission, CCP Ashton quickly learned many former police officers desperately needed help.

“When you started looking at mental health and safety, you could see in the veteran community that we had broken a lot of people and we needed take some of the responsibility for that and address it,” he said.

Vicki Key, a retired police sergeant, met with CCP Ashton early in his tenure as Chief Commissioner to discuss her efforts to establish the Retired Peer Support Officer Program.

The program connects former officers with other retired police who are trained in supporting people with mental health issues.

The meeting proved pivotal.

“I was explaining the types of problems retired police were facing like grief, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse,” Ms Key said.

“I told the Chief, ‘We’ve got former police, who were high-functioning police and did their job really well, but since they left, they’re now homeless.

“Graham sat there with his mouth wide open. He just looked at me and asked, ‘How can that happen? We’ve got to do something about it.’

“I think that really shook Graham to the core and he truly understood and believed in what we were trying to achieve and said he’d do whatever was needed to support us.”

Just one of the many ways CCP Ashton supported the program was by raising money and awareness for it through the Head to Head walk in October 2018.

The three-week walk involved CCP Ashton and The Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt walking a combined 1,000km from opposite corners of the state to raise more than $600,000 for the cause.

But it was in late 2017 that CCP Ashton made his most telling move to improve the culture around mental health at Victoria Police.

It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t a specific initiative or a funding announcement, but it was personal.

CCP Ashton had driven himself into the ground with work and was mentally and physically spent.

He took six weeks sick leave to recover.

He could have told the organisation he was simply going on leave, but after months of imploring his troops to seek help when struggling, CCP Ashton wanted to lead by example.

CCP Ashton’s executive assistant Cassie Stephens and AC Curran remember clearly when they were called to CCP Ashton’s home early in his sick leave.

“I’ll never forget what he said to us, that he owed it to the families of officers who had suicided to be open about the reasons for his time off,” Ms Stephens said.

“He told us, ‘I need to send a message to the organisation that even the highest rank feels these things and does what needs to be done to get well’,” AC Curran said.

Senior Police Psychologist Dr Alex West then worked with CCP Ashton to address his burnout and develop a healthy pace for work and life.

As CCP Ashton now joins the ranks of veteran police officers, he is keen to see what the future holds.

At the age of 58, he believes he still has plenty to contribute, perhaps in the areas of his interests of mental health, sports integrity or wildlife conservation.

And he might also dive more into his hobbies such as vegetable gardening, fishing and horse racing.

Or he could continue to perfect his position as lamb specialist in the award-winning competitive barbecuing team he is a member of.

With the constant demand of the job now no more, CCP Ashton will enjoy more time to spend with his wife Liz and their two teenage girls.

Though, he’s never been “Mr Chief Commissioner” to his daughters, and not even “Dad” or “Graham”.

“They call me Lenny,” he said.

“My middle name is Leonard, so they’re always saying, ‘G’day Lenny. How ya goin’, Len?’

“They’re always hanging it on me over something or other.

“Whatever I happen to be doing always seems to be a subject of humour for them.”

As someone who naturally prefers that others enjoy the limelight, hanging up the Chief Commissioner’s uniform will help him hide from the persistent threat of praise he shies away from.

AC Brett Curran said CCP Ashton’s shoes will be large ones to fill.

“He is utterly authentic and he takes his role very, very seriously, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously,” AC Curran said.

“He is a rare combination of genuine humility and incredible ability, and that kind of leadership has served Victoria Police brilliantly well over the years.”

For 24/7 crisis support or suicide prevention services, please call 13 11 14. If life is in danger, call Triple Zero (000). Current and former Victoria Police employees and their families can also access wellbeing services via bluespacewellbeing.com.au