4 minute read
CAREER IN FOCUS: Sister Act
Editorial: Danielle Ford
Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann
A career in policing runs in the family for the three Price sisters, but that doesn’t mean their journey to the job has been the same.
Detective Senior Constable Georgia Price, Constable Alysha Sier (née Price) and Constable Belle Price have been around the policing world their whole lives, with their father a now-retired detective who served for 30 years.
“Dad was always really open about his job and he would share as much as he could with us,” Georgia said.
“I think we were all really interested in the job but I know I took a real interest in it and always knew I wanted to do the same thing.”
Georgia was the first of the sisters to join Victoria Police in 2010 as an 18-year-old.
“I filled out my application when I was 17, that’s how sure I was that I wanted to be a police officer,” she said.
Ten years later, Georgia’s a detective working in the Hume Crime Investigation Unit.
“I thought about working in different areas like the Critical Incident Response Team and other specialist units but, in the end, the detective route seemed like the way to go for me.
“I was lucky enough to get secondments to different investigative units early in my career and that set me on the detective path.”
The eldest and the youngest of the Price daughters, Alysha and Belle, might be eight years apart in age but they graduated from the Victoria Police Academy within 12 months of each other.
The two sisters both applied to join the force around the same time, with younger sister Belle commencing her time at the Academy just before Alysha.
“It’s the one time in my life I’ve been able to pull a bit of seniority over Alysha,” Belle joked.
Belle graduated in March 2020 and now works at Sunbury Police Station.
Her path to a policing career was similar to Georgia’s, joining the force soon after high school, just before she turned 19.
“Much like Georgia, I had always thought of policing as a career path I wanted to take,” Belle said.
“I probably wasn’t as certain of it as soon as she was, but by the time I finished high school, I knew it was what I wanted to do.
“I grew up hearing stories from the job about engaging with the community and working cases to help get a good outcome for victims of crime, it always appealed to me as something I’d be proud to do.”
The eldest of the sisters, Alysha, was the last to join and had a different journey to Victoria Police.
Her life in blue came after she completed a university degree and had a child.
Alysha graduated from the Academy in July 2020 and is stationed at Box Hill Police Station.
Being a police officer is something she always had in the back of her mind, but she wanted to pursue other things after leaving school.
“I didn’t have that set-in-stone idea that it was what I wanted to do like my sisters,” Alysha said.
“I went to university and studied sport and exercise science and, when I graduated, I ended up getting married and having a baby and my priorities in a career changed.
Const Belle Price, Sen Const Georgia Price and Const Alysha Sier walked different paths to their careers with Victoria Police but all say it’s a job that is extremely rewarding.
Being in the early stages of their service, Alysha and Belle say they are not 100 per cent sure which career path they will go down within Victoria Police just yet.
“I’m very early on in my career so I’m still figuring out exactly what I want to do. But I know that Georgia has a wealth of knowledge and experience I can draw upon if I have any questions,” Alysha said.
No matter which direction they choose, the three sisters agree the biggest positive of having siblings in the same uniform is the constant support and advice available at the family dinner table or through a quick phone call.
“I live with Georgia so I hear her and her partner, who is also a detective, at home talking about the jobs they’ve been working on and it gives me a good insight into a detective career,” Belle said.
“Having gone through the Academy at a similar time to Alysha, we were able to be a big support for each other during that training time and that’s extended to now as we both start and progress our careers at the same time. It will continue even if we end up going down different paths within the job.”
Georgia added; “We all draw on advice from each other. Our phones are always buzzing with us calling each other saying ‘Hey I had this job, what do you think about this?’.
