7 minute read
A global force
Editorial: Danielle Ford
Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann
With Victoria boasting one of the most culturally-diverse societies in the world, Police Life is sharing the stories of some of the many police and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) born overseas.
Census data shows 28.4 per cent of Victoria’s population was born overseas, coming from more than 200 countries, with nearly 11 per cent of police and PSOs contributing to these figures.
Of the nearly 17,000 police and PSOs employed by Victoria Police, 1,814 were born in a country other than Australia.
PSOs make up the largest part of this figure, with nearly 38 per cent having been born overseas, coming from 63 countries, while nearly 9 per cent of police were born across 91 nations.
Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said having a diverse workforce was crucially important for Victoria Police and something it was constantly striving to increase.
“We are committed to being reflective of the diverse Victorian community we serve,” DC Nugent said.
“It’s wonderful to see so many people from all over the world with great stories and backgrounds contributing to Victoria Police.
“Our workforce is enriched by the presence of these people from all over the world.”
While some people came to Australia as migrants hoping to create a better life for themselves and their children, others were simply drawn to the lifestyle Australia offered.
The one thing they all now have in common is their desire to serve the community they chose to settle in.
Data current as at 30/04/2019
Making the move together
A move across the world brought on by the crippling Greek financial crisis led this couple to a brighter future for their family and their dream careers with Victoria Police.
Six years ago, Constable Panagiotis ‘Panos’ Roumeliotis and Protective Services Officer (PSO) Vasilicki ‘Vicky’ Skoupas were living in Greece struggling to make ends meet. This was amidst a financial crisis that saw the country experience an economic collapse lasting longer than the US Great Depression.
Like thousands of others, Protective Services Officer Vasilicki ‘Vicky’ Skoupas and Constable Panagiotis ‘Panos’ Roumeliotis have migrated to Australia from overseas and made working with Victoria Police part of their new lives.
“We didn’t have a mortgage to pay and we both had jobs, so we were seen as sort of the lucky ones,” Const Roumeliotis said of that time in Greece.
“If our children wanted to go to university we wouldn’t have been able to afford it.”
Wanting to create a better life for themselves and their two children, the couple packed up their lives and moved to Melbourne in 2013.
“We had to build our life here from scratch, even just finding a house to rent was a challenge,” Const Roumeliotis said.
Now, six years after the move, the couple and their two children have settled into life in Australia, a life which opened up the opportunity to follow a career in law enforcement for them both.
“I always wanted to be a police officer but the system in Greece is very different and I never qualified. Once I was older than 26 I could no longer apply,” Const Roumeliotis said.
Const Roumeliotis joined Victoria Police in October 2014 as a PSO before training to be a police officer four years later, graduating as a constable last September.
In November, PSO Skoupas also joined Victoria Police, with her husband presenting her with her badge at graduation.
Const Panos Roumeliotis (right) presented PSO Vicky Skoupas with her badge at her graduation from the Victoria Police Academy, marking a big day for the couple, who credit their move to Australia as changing the course of their life.
“It was a really special moment because it was a moment where we could both stop and look at how far we have come since moving here,” PSO Skoupas said.
“We feel very privileged to have these jobs and to serve the community. It’s something that’s only possible because we made the choice to move here.”
Looking back and giving back
For First Constable Karen Matias moving to Australia wasn’t her choice, but it’s something she said changed her life in ways she couldn’t have imagined.
When she was 12, the now 37-year-old’s parents made the decision to move their three children from the Philippines to Australia.
“While life was good over there, life is a particular way and if we had stayed in the Philippines, certain futures wouldn’t have been opened up for us. I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to be a police officer,” Const Matias said.
After working at Crown Casino for several years, Const Matias was sworn in as a police officer in 2015 and worked as a general duties officer before joining the Operations Response Unit (ORU) two years ago.
Const Karen Matias is proud to serve the Melbourne community and says it is her way of giving back to the people that welcomed her family when they moved from the Philippines 25 years ago.
The ORU is a highly-trained response team tasked to tackle large-scale public safety
events, road policing and crime issues across the state and has the capacity to provide rapid response to major incidents at short notice.
With all the opportunities living in Australia has provided, Const Matias said she joined Victoria Police as a way to “give back to the community that welcomed her family”.
“Everyone in my family has had the opportunity to create whatever kind of life we want here in Australia and that is something myself and my family is so thankful for,” she said.
Despite having moved to Australia so young, Const Matias said her Filipino heritage still plays a big role in her life, most importantly in the way it has shaped her values.
“The Filipino culture really focuses on family, respect and integrity and these are things that I value in my life,” she said.
From Macedonia to Melbourne
Having been a stay-at-homemother for eight years, making the decision to join Victoria Police as a Protective Services Officer (PSO) was a big deal for Jordanka Petkoff.
But for the now 48-year-old, it wasn’t the first life-changing decision she had made.
Twenty years ago, when she was 28, PSO Petkoff packed up her whole life to move to Melbourne from the European country of Macedonia.
“At that age it’s not easy when you leave all your friends and move to a place where you have to start afresh,” PSO Petkoff said.
“But I was lucky that I had a lot of family who lived over here, which made it a bit easier.”
Cultural heritage is what makes PSO Jordanka Petkoff love living in Australia even more.
Even with the difficulties involved with the move, PSO Petkoff said she immediately felt that Australia was home.
“A lot of my family had moved over here and I had been thinking about what to do next in my life and decided I’d come over here as well,” she said.
“They all spoke so highly of the country and about the opportunities available over here.”
Sighting the multiculturalism of Melbourne as one of her favourite things about living here, PSO Petkoff said the diversity of the community is greatly reflected at work.
“Just in our office at Moorabbin, we probably have staff from about 10 different nationalities,” she said.
A passage from India
After falling in love with Australia during a holiday in 2005, Amit Verma decided to return the following year and make his home in Melbourne.
“It wasn’t an easy move because my parents and family were all back in India,” he said.
“It took me about five months to start to feel really settled, but even during that time I knew Australia was somewhere I was lucky to be living.”
The 28-year-old is now a constable with Victoria Police, an achievement he said wouldn’t have been possible had he not made the move to Australia.
Const Amit Verma says being able to represent his Indian culture while serving his community as a police officer is something he feels privileged to do.
“I’d actually always wanted to join either the police or military back in India but I never quite felt confident enough to try and go for it,” Const Verma said.
“But since moving here, I have built a really strong support network that really pushed me to apply for Victoria Police when I told them I was thinking about it.”
Highlighting multiculturalism as one of the things he enjoys most about living in Melbourne, Const Verma said since joining Victoria Police he had gained a greater appreciation of the role culture plays in policing.
“I love living in a place that has such a culturally-diverse community,” Const Verma said.
