Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Superintendent Neil Hayes, Senior Police Auxiliary Caroline Morrissy and Recruit Auxiliary Jade Palmer
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: And we're always busy in here, always so much happening.
- 0:03Speaker 1: And well this week we've got some more police recruits
- 0:07Speaker 1: who are going to be graduating. And it's actually our
- 0:10Speaker 1: axillaries now joining me in the studio to tell us
- 0:12Speaker 1: a little bit more about this. Superintendent of Police Recruitment,
- 0:16Speaker 1: Neil Hayes, Good morning to.
- 0:17Speaker 2: You, morning, Katie.
- 0:18Speaker 1: How are you very well? Now? I've also got Caroline
- 0:21Speaker 1: Morrison who is a senior auxillary. Good morning to you, Carolyn,
- 0:25Speaker 1: Good morning, And I've got well a police auxillary recruit,
- 0:31Speaker 1: Jade Palmer. That's your surname, isn't it. Did I write
- 0:34Speaker 1: that down correctly? Good morning to now for our listeners
- 0:38Speaker 1: out there, we literally just rush these guys in. There's
- 0:40Speaker 1: not a lot of time during the ad breaks, but
- 0:43Speaker 1: I like to keep the conversations very organic anyway when
- 0:46Speaker 1: you are on air. Now, Neil, firstly, how many recruits
- 0:49Speaker 1: have we got graduating this week?
- 0:52Speaker 2: This week, I think we've got nine graduating for Communication axillary.
- 0:56Speaker 2: So these are the ones that work in our desk
- 0:58Speaker 2: that's based up here in Darwin. They take the phone
- 1:00Speaker 2: calls and dispatch people on the radio, so they're behind
- 1:03Speaker 2: the scenes that keep the guys on the road informed
- 1:06Speaker 2: with what's going on. But there's also another squad that's
- 1:08Speaker 2: in there, which is our front line axiliary squad, which
- 1:10Speaker 2: are the guys that do the watchhouse, the front counters,
- 1:13Speaker 2: and the liquor inspect to work down the track.
- 1:15Speaker 1: And so how many of those, I think.
- 1:17Speaker 2: We've got seventeen that are due to grade tuate, but
- 1:20Speaker 2: they are a few weeks away. They're halfway through their training.
- 1:23Speaker 1: So seventeen of those and nine are this week, but
- 1:26Speaker 1: those other seventeen are a couple of weeks away. And
- 1:29Speaker 1: you know, I think at the end of the day,
- 1:31Speaker 1: the auxiliaries, it is a pretty full on role as well.
- 1:36Speaker 1: For our police auxiliaries. You just spoke then about the
- 1:38Speaker 1: ones that are going down the track to do various different,
- 1:41Speaker 1: various different things. It is very busy for our auxiliaries.
- 1:44Speaker 2: It is. Look, they're the backbone of what the guys
- 1:45Speaker 2: on the road do. So without them, our watchhouses don't run,
- 1:48Speaker 2: the front counters aren't serviced, and you know we're getting
- 1:51Speaker 2: the guys dispatched to the job. So it's a really
- 1:55Speaker 2: key role to what we do. So I think sometimes
- 1:56Speaker 2: they get they're the unsung hero. So you know, it's
- 1:59Speaker 2: really important to have.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Well and Caroline, I know that you are obviously a
- 2:03Speaker 1: senior auxiliary, so I understand you're actually do you coordinate
- 2:06Speaker 1: the auxiliaries and new recruits?
- 2:08Speaker 3: Yeah, we do, so we do it a little bit
- 2:10Speaker 3: of recruiting obviously, sorry, co coordinating with the squads over
- 2:13Speaker 3: the college. That can include anywhere basically from delivering components
- 2:17Speaker 3: of their training to just supporting them in their time
- 2:19Speaker 3: in the college.
- 2:21Speaker 1: How important is this work and how I mean how
- 2:24Speaker 1: what's a regular day like for you?
- 2:26Speaker 3: For me at the college? It will start really early,
- 2:28Speaker 3: so depending on whether they've got a PT session or
- 2:30Speaker 3: anything in the morning, so we can start as early
- 2:33Speaker 3: as six point thirty, finishing up at about four thirty
- 2:35Speaker 3: five o'clock in the afternoon. It is pretty busy. The
- 2:38Speaker 3: recruits are going from classroom to classroom pretty much learning
- 2:41Speaker 3: different skills. They learn anything from unconscious bias training, mental health,
- 2:45Speaker 3: first aid, customer service work, cultural awareness, as well as
- 2:49Speaker 3: a couple of other bits and pieces delivered in there
- 2:52Speaker 3: with skills blocks.
- 2:53Speaker 1: It were very busy, Yeah, it would be very busy.
- 2:55Speaker 1: And then what is it like, what's a typical day
- 2:57Speaker 1: like I guess seen for some of our auxiliaries when
- 3:00Speaker 1: they get out on the job. What can Jade expect
- 3:04Speaker 1: when she does do that.
- 3:05Speaker 3: Well, she'd be moving into communications, so she will be
- 3:08Speaker 3: definitely very busy. They work a twelve hour roster as
- 3:10Speaker 3: far as I'm with, so they'll be doing two nights,
- 3:13Speaker 3: two days, obviously days off in between. But it is
- 3:16Speaker 3: communicating with the community and the public, so answering general
- 3:20Speaker 3: police assistance calls that come through on the one, three, one,
- 3:23Speaker 3: triple fours as well as the triple zero as well.
- 3:26Speaker 1: And Jade, I understand, well, your background's actually sort of
- 3:28Speaker 1: in the media, isn't it. Yes, that's correct, So what
- 3:31Speaker 1: made you decide to put your hand up to become
- 3:33Speaker 1: an auxiliary.
- 3:34Speaker 4: Look, I've been working in the media since I was seventeen.
- 3:37Speaker 4: My partner is an Aboriginal community police officer, and as
- 3:41Speaker 4: I just got older, I just kind of felt that
- 3:44Speaker 4: I needed a change of scenery, a change of skills really,
- 3:49Speaker 4: so I looked into the police auxiliary communications found that
- 3:53Speaker 4: you know what, this might be right up my alley.
- 3:56Speaker 4: Learned something new, try something different. So I applied, got
- 4:00Speaker 4: accepted into the role, and now I graduate on Friday,
- 4:04Speaker 4: and I am so excited.
- 4:05Speaker 1: That is awesome and so wonderful. I think, what a
- 4:09Speaker 1: great job to do. And it seems to me as
- 4:12Speaker 1: well that within the police force there's actually so many
- 4:15Speaker 1: opportunities to further your career and further yourself as well. Neil.
- 4:19Speaker 2: Look, the auxiliary role has really evolved over the last
- 4:22Speaker 2: few years. So years ago it used to be pretty
- 4:25Speaker 2: much the front counter the comms and their watchhouse, whereas
- 4:28Speaker 2: we've seen in recent times where we've gone to the
- 4:30Speaker 2: frontline role, so the liquor inspectors like I say, Dan,
- 4:33Speaker 2: Lieutenant Catherine Analyis and we're now going to the school
- 4:36Speaker 2: based roles as well. So the opportunities are starting to
- 4:39Speaker 2: become a lot more varied. And there's a lot of
- 4:40Speaker 2: people that use it as a sort of stepping stone
- 4:43Speaker 2: in the police as they come in, they test the
- 4:45Speaker 2: waters and see where the policing might fit for them
- 4:47Speaker 2: and then go on to apply and become constables later on.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Then there's others that just love the role they fit in,
- 4:53Speaker 2: and Carolyn has been in that role for a long
- 4:56Speaker 2: time now with a former winner of a Year as Yeah,
- 5:00Speaker 2: and that's the people that are just suited to that
- 5:02Speaker 2: role and love what they do. So, like I say,
- 5:05Speaker 2: it's such a key role and it's just amazing to
- 5:07Speaker 2: have these guys on board.
- 5:08Speaker 1: Yeah, and so Caroline, you are former Police Auxiliary of
- 5:10Speaker 1: the Year.
- 5:11Speaker 3: And for twenty twenty.
- 5:13Speaker 1: Yes, I got on you, and I mean, what is
- 5:15Speaker 1: it that you love about your job?
- 5:17Speaker 3: I like the variety, to be honest. I started off
- 5:19Speaker 3: in communications. I did five years in the desk, absolutely
- 5:23Speaker 3: loved the work that I was doing there, but felt
- 5:25Speaker 3: that I wanted to do more. I had more to offer,
- 5:27Speaker 3: so I applied for as to comment believe it or not,
- 5:29Speaker 3: in recruitment yep. So went over to recruitment for on
- 5:32Speaker 3: and off for about eighteen months, worked in the selections
- 5:35Speaker 3: unit within there as well, and then went on from
- 5:38Speaker 3: there to work in firearms, palmersan front, counter forensics and
- 5:43Speaker 3: now at the college. So I like the variety. The
- 5:46Speaker 3: comfortable stream is obviously a good one as well, but
- 5:49Speaker 3: this suited my family sort of style at that time.
- 5:52Speaker 3: I've got young children, so this was something that was
- 5:54Speaker 3: great for myself as well as for family.
- 5:56Speaker 1: I reckon it sounds awesome and I know that you're
- 5:58Speaker 1: sort of always on the lookout for good people really
- 6:01Speaker 1: to join the force, whether at the auxiliary level or
- 6:04Speaker 1: at the constable level, aren't you. Yeah.
- 6:05Speaker 2: So at the moment, we're still recruiting actively for a
- 6:08Speaker 2: squad that's due to comments in late October. So there's
- 6:10Speaker 2: anyone out there that's listening that thinks that this could
- 6:13Speaker 2: be for them, then get on our Facebook page, jump
- 6:15Speaker 2: on the website, have a look and, like I say,
- 6:17Speaker 2: we're taking applications and you never know, it might be
- 6:20Speaker 2: the change that you're looking for.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Oh good stuff, Well it's really do it. Yeah. Wonderful
- 6:25Speaker 1: to catch up with you all this morning, Neil, Jade, Caroline,
- 6:28Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time and all the best. Jade,
- 6:31Speaker 1: once you become an auxiliary, I reckon, it's fantastic. Good
- 6:34Speaker 1: on you. Thank you,