SMALL TALK VOX POP
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER
What is something that people don't know about the Transit PSO role? PSO SERGEANT KATRINA SPACKMAN Transit South 2 – Moorabbin
PSO NATALIE CASTEL Transit Central 1 – Melbourne
SECRET LIFE OF POLICE
I think hearing that PSOs have only been at stations for 10 years. It surprised me that it was only in 2012 that the role started because PSOs are such a regular sight on public transport today I thought they had been around longer. PSO PAT DOWLING Transit Central 1 – Melbourne That we aren’t onboard public transport to check if people have valid tickets. People often see us and start getting their Myki card out, ready for us to check it but our role is to engage with people and help improve public safety, not to check for ticket compliance.
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POLICE LIFE |
You may notice that this Police Life is slightly different. We are now publishing Police Life twice a year and are working on a new project that will bring you the best stories from across the organisation in a new format. We will provide more details on this new project soon. In this edition, I am pleased to announce the rollout of our Neighbourhood Policing model across the state. The model guides how we will keep the community safe. It creates processes for local police to listen, understand, and respond to the issues raised in their community. Police will then work closely with local businesses,
It might surprise people to know that we do very similar operational training as police. We also get nine weeks leave, which is an added bonus to a great job.
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Welcome to the first issue of Police Life for 2022. I hope that, like me, you are looking forward to the year ahead and are making plans for a return to normality.
AUTUMN/WINTER 2022
After Senior Sergeant Adrian Filzek received a Weber charcoal barbeque as a wedding present, it sat in his garage collecting dust for months because he thought it was too difficult to operate. “I looked for the button to turn it on and where to connect the gas hose to,” Sen Sgt Filzek said. “I soon realised it was a charcoal barbeque and I wasn’t interested in it because of the hard work involved.” With that false start to his time on the tongs, it’s hard to imagine how Sen Sgt Filzek has since turned into an award-winning competitive barbeque pitmaster. Sen Sgt Filzek – who works in the governance space at the Victoria Police Academy and spent most of his 21-year police career in general duties – eventually figured out how to work the Weber and has not looked back since. “It just grew exponentially into an obsession about cooking over charcoal,” he said. His wife helped foster the fanaticism early on by getting him into a barbeque masterclass. “I got talking with other people there about the mammoth smokers they’ve got, and I realised it was time to upgrade,” Sen Sgt Filzek said. “My very generous wife saw me in the barbeque store pretty much drooling over this massive offset smoker and she said, ‘Yes, you can get it’.” He now owns eight different barbeques and smokers, which all belong in a space in his backyard signposted as “Pit Lane”, right next to his outdoor bar. “My wife is really good because she knows that it’s my escape from life and she’ll send me outside to my toy pen, if you like, to play out there for a few hours,” he said. Sen Sgt Filzek and a close friend take part in Victorian and interstate barbeque competitions,
organisations and members of the community to prevent and reduce crime. We share examples of how Neighbourhood Policing is working in the four trial sites launched in July 2021. These examples demonstrate the positive results that we expect to see state-wide. In this edition, we also feature: • Victoria Police’s response to family violence perpetrated by employees, which includes a new team dedicated to investigating these matters and revised policies. • The 10-year anniversary of Protective Services Officers on the transit system, celebrating their important role and how their functions have expanded over the decade. Enjoy the articles and stay safe.
including against former Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, under the team name Fahrenheit 205, a nod to the perfect internal temperature for beef brisket. Their specialty dish, pork ribs, have won them a number of first places. While the key to their award-winning pork ribs includes liquid injections, plenty of butter, maple syrup and a top-secret glaze, Sen Sgt Filzek has another secret, if unconventional, cooking weapon. “Country and Western music played in the background makes them a lot more tender. I swear by it,” he said. While delicious smoked meat is a brilliant reward for many hours of hard work, Sen Sgt Filzek often doesn’t eat much of the fruits of his labour. “For me, it’s more about the journey and an escape from day-to-day life,” he said. “I’m pretty lucky I haven’t taken any mental health tumbles in my 21 years in the job, and I think having this as a hobby, something that I’m so passionate about that I can escape to, is one of the reasons for that. “It’s a form of mindfulness for me.”
