Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Police Recruiters Superintendent Neil Hayes and Senior Sergeant Serge Bouma

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Police Recruiters Superintendent Neil Hayes and Senior Sergeant Serge Bouma · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Mix one oh four point nine's three sixty.
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  Speaker 1: Now have you ever thought about becoming a police officer? Well,
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  Speaker 1: police are currently recruiting and joining me in the studio
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  Speaker 1: right now to talk more about it is Serge Boehmer,
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  Speaker 1: the Oicee of Police Recruitment. Good morning to your search.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Katie, and we've also got Neil Hayes, the
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  Speaker 1: Superintendent of Police Recruitment. Good morning, Neil, morning Katy. Great
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  Speaker 1: to have you both in the studio. Now, well, what
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  Speaker 1: does it take to be a police officer?
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  Speaker 2: First off, what we're.
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  Speaker 3: Really looking for is at the moment, local people we want.
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  Speaker 3: We want Territorians to step up and work for the community.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we want fit people. And we're about to
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  Speaker 3: head down the track and go and see the people
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  Speaker 3: in Catherine, Tennant Creek, and al Springs and see if
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  Speaker 3: we can get some of those interested in joining our ranks.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing you're hitting the hitting the
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  Speaker 1: road the recruitment road show in Catherine, Alice Springs and
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  Speaker 1: Tenant Creek.
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  Speaker 2: What exactly will you be doing when you go to
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  Speaker 2: those places?
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  Speaker 4: So, first stops Catherine. We'll be down there for the
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  Speaker 4: next four days while we're down there, we'll be meeting
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  Speaker 4: with some corporations down there and telling people about what
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  Speaker 4: it's involved to become a police officer. We're going to
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  Speaker 4: have a stall set up in the Catherine Central as well,
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  Speaker 4: so an opportunity for people to come and stop and
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  Speaker 4: chat to us and ask the questions that you might
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  Speaker 4: be burning away on. What does the job involve? Any
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  Speaker 4: day's other questions, how much do we get paid, what
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  Speaker 4: other conditions you know, come and see us, ask any
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  Speaker 4: of those types of things. And then finally on Saturday morning,
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  Speaker 4: we'll have a come try day for our fitness testing,
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  Speaker 4: so you'll have the opportunity to come give it a go,
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  Speaker 4: see what it's about, and that way if you're serious
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  Speaker 4: and you can get some training in awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is something that we all talked about last
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  Speaker 1: time you guys were in and we'll talk more about
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  Speaker 1: those fitness tests in a moment, but just firstly, so
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  Speaker 1: in Catherine today and then heading to when will you
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  Speaker 1: be heading to Alison Tenant.
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  Speaker 4: So we hit Alice Springs Wednesday next week. We're down
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  Speaker 4: there for a couple of days. Again, we'll be setting
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  Speaker 4: up in the upper in the Shop center down there.
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  Speaker 4: And again opportunity for people come chat to us. Then
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  Speaker 4: we head up to Tenant Creek on Friday and we'll
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  Speaker 4: be available around Tennant Creek. We'll do the same contry
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  Speaker 4: day on Saturday morning and Tenant Creek and then Sunday
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  Speaker 4: morning in our springs before we fly back to Darwin
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  Speaker 4: next week.
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  Speaker 1: And so then there will also be the opportunity in
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  Speaker 1: Darwin for people to hit along to a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a come and try day as well.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're planning for the next one up here.
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  Speaker 4: So again we'll get out and we'll put some stuff
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  Speaker 4: to our Facebook page and we'll probably come talk to
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  Speaker 4: you again, Katie, because when we do our contray day here,
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  Speaker 4: I think last time we spoke, you said that you
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  Speaker 4: were keen to come and give the fitness sess and
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  Speaker 4: they go, well, yes, so you and Ronnie you're welcome.
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  Speaker 2: So I reckon we'll do. Well. What is involved though
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  Speaker 2: in a fitness test?
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  Speaker 3: All right? So there's there's four activities, so we do
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  Speaker 3: a we're seeking maximum effort on everything, So what we
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  Speaker 3: want to see is good push ups.
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  Speaker 2: I'm assuming not girl ones no.
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  Speaker 3: No no on the toes. And then we do a
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  Speaker 3: timed plank on the elbows and the toes again, grip
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  Speaker 3: strength test on both hands, and then a good old
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  Speaker 3: beep test.
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  Speaker 2: I don't mind the beep test, all right, I'm keen.
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  Speaker 1: I will commit myself to doing it so long as
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  Speaker 1: the dates, the dates work. I can't make any promises
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  Speaker 1: for Ronnie at this point in time, but we'll see.
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  Speaker 2: What she says.
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  Speaker 3: Surely she'd be keen.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon she will be let's locker in as well.
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  Speaker 1: Now, in terms of you know, I guess the fitness
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  Speaker 1: test is just really one element of joining the police force.
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  Speaker 1: There'll be lots of other elements to it. What exactly
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  Speaker 1: are you looking for?
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  Speaker 4: So we want people that have got that calm nature,
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  Speaker 4: that have got natural problem solving skills. We need people
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  Speaker 4: that can think on their feet, can handle stressful situations
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  Speaker 4: because there are all things that you're going to be
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  Speaker 4: thrown during any shift that you do. So the processes
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  Speaker 4: you'll go through a series of psychometric testing, some literacy
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  Speaker 4: and numeracy testing, interviews if you get that far, and
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  Speaker 4: then into the fitness test. So it is just one
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  Speaker 4: part of it, but all rounded. We want people like
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  Speaker 4: say that are willing to give back and are willing
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  Speaker 4: to serve their community and serve anywhere across the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 4: and that's why we're focused on territories at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: People that understand territory issues and the territory and the
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  Speaker 4: uniqueness that we deal with up here absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Now, how many people are you looking for.
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  Speaker 4: Well, we're always recruiting, so we're now we've opened up
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  Speaker 4: that will continuously recruit and we will have a pool
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  Speaker 4: that will form. So in the meantime, we've currently got
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  Speaker 4: one hundred and six recruits that are going through the
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  Speaker 4: Police College at the moment through various streams. Some of
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  Speaker 4: those people that have transitioned from other roles, so our
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  Speaker 4: auxiliary rolls into constable, our acpos into constable, So we're
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  Speaker 4: actually recruiting across all of those streams, so our Aboriginal
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  Speaker 4: liaison officers, Aboriginal communities, police officers, police auxiliaries, and police constables.
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  Speaker 4: So there's courses that will be running for the next
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  Speaker 4: twelve months, so we're looking for people in November May
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  Speaker 4: next year, and then other courses that will be fed
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  Speaker 4: in between those as well.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not sort of a matter of saying okay,
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  Speaker 1: we need a certain number of females or a certain
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  Speaker 1: number of of you know, people from this area. It's
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  Speaker 1: more a matter of saying we want territories that are
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  Speaker 1: really keen and want to serve.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, look, we won't represent the community. So we want
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  Speaker 4: a real mix of people within our organization where it's male, females,
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  Speaker 4: different cultural backgrounds, and we encourage all of those people
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  Speaker 4: to apply, and we generally get really good results when
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  Speaker 4: females apply, they're generally really good applicants.
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  Speaker 1: Well, look, there were certain elements of what you were
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  Speaker 1: saying you need in police officers that I thought, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I can hopefully do the fitness test. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: about being calm all the time though, that might be
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  Speaker 1: an issue for me. Now, when do you start that
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  Speaker 1: first round of recruits, Well, when do they start their training?
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  Speaker 3: So we got a constable squad commencing end of November, yep,
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  Speaker 3: and that'll be around thirty thirty new new recruits and
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  Speaker 3: they'll be in there for in the college for about
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  Speaker 3: six and a half months, and then actually basically straight
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  Speaker 3: after New Years, we've got an auxiliary squad starting. So
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  Speaker 3: that's basically to fill those pali spots. Down the track
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  Speaker 3: and then we've got another auxiliary squad and an average
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  Speaker 3: community police officer squad starting in February. So, like Neil said,
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  Speaker 3: we're pretty busy and it's trying to pump them out. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but we're definitely focused on getting territories if we can.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's important that we support the community as
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  Speaker 3: a community organization as well. So and the territory community,
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  Speaker 3: you know, could always do with extra jobs, and if
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  Speaker 3: we get the right people, that's a good thing.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Now to anybody out there listening this morning who might
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  Speaker 1: be thinking, Okay, well I'm potentially interested, you know, what
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  Speaker 1: would you say to them? What kind of job is it?
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  Speaker 1: What's it like being a territory police officer?
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  Speaker 4: Look, Katie, I love it. I've been doing it for
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  Speaker 4: the last twenty years. Every day is different. It's like
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  Speaker 4: twenty careers rolled into one. You're never bored, you never
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  Speaker 4: know what's coming next. It's something that you know, if
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  Speaker 4: you want to give back. You do feel that sense
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  Speaker 4: of satisfaction every day that you go to work. So
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  Speaker 4: you know, it's not something for a short term. It's
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  Speaker 4: not something to give you an arn, but if you're
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  Speaker 4: if you're serious, you get so much out of it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely. It's it's a lifestyle, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: I love the job. My wife wouldn't agree, but I'd
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  Speaker 3: do it for free.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what, I'm really interested to see
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  Speaker 1: how it all goes on these come and try days
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  Speaker 1: and where people have got the opportunity to find out
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  Speaker 1: a bit more and also have a crack at these
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  Speaker 1: fitness tests.
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  Speaker 2: How far away is the dar on one? Should I
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  Speaker 2: start training?
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  Speaker 4: Look, I've seen you one, Katie. I don't think you
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  Speaker 4: need to then maybe just push ups. Look away for
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  Speaker 4: the next couple of weeks, So it'll probably in a
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  Speaker 4: month or so. But once that the day throughout will
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  Speaker 4: have that across our socials as well, and maybe we'll
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  Speaker 4: come back in and we'll get running in as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good idea, Come do it, Let's do it. I
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  Speaker 2: reckon now.
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  Speaker 1: If anybody is after a bit more information, is there
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  Speaker 1: somewhere where they should.
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  Speaker 3: Hit certainly the Police Police website and there's a join
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  Speaker 3: us link in there and it's got all the information
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  Speaker 3: on the side there. And what we're asking people to
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  Speaker 3: do is submit expressions of interest and they can submit
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  Speaker 3: expressions of interest for a variety of different streams including
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  Speaker 3: constable Auxiliary AHPO. All of those things are available and
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  Speaker 3: when we're ready we'll send them an invite to apply.
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  Speaker 4: The details for the Cometry Days. I think you've already
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  Speaker 4: been posted on Facebook, so they're sitting there now, and
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  Speaker 4: both the al Springs and the Catherine Wanes the dets
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  Speaker 4: are on there, so get on there.
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  Speaker 2: Good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Well, wonderful to talk to you both this morning, Serge Boomer,
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  Speaker 1: the OIC Officer in charge of Police Recruitment and Neil Hayes,
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  Speaker 1: the Police Recruitment Superintendent. Great have you in the studio.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks Katie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one oh four point now
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  Speaker 1: and