By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Cardinia Shire Council mayor and Leading Senior Constable with Victoria Police Brett Owen was awarded a National Police Service Medal to commemorate his 20 years of police service.
The awards were presented to police officers in the area to recognise and appreciate their years of service to the community on Tuesday 21 February at the Cardinia Cultural Centre.
Leading Sen Const Owen joined the police force in 1996 after graduating from the Victoria Police Academy at 19 years of age.
While he has worked in many and varied roles across the south-east police service areas over the years, he found his calling in crime prevention and community engagement.
“I’ve done uniform duties across Cardinia, Casey, and Greater Dandenong but in the last 15 years I have worked in the community engagement area,” he said.
“Doing things like being a police in schools officer, working in youth resource and now in crime prevention.
“I have been in that space for a long time and I really enjoy community engagement – in a growing area it is a vital role to engage and provide information to assist residents in reducing their risk in being a victim of crime.”
He said being a police officer is an incredible rewarding experience and gives him a great insight into what issues the community are facing which he brings into his role as mayor and councillor.
“I think being in that police role is a great benefit to council as I see at the grass roots the issues that are facing our communities whether that is mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, and family violence.
“I bring that knowledge to council but it also works both ways where I can bring council knowledge into the police role to get a better understanding of the community.”
Leading Sen Const Owen is very grateful that Victoria Police supported his decision to take 12 months leave for his mayoral responsibilities and said policing can sometimes be a difficult job.
“I enjoy the mayoral role,” he said.
“Policing is a tough job especially with how things are at the moment with youth crime and family violence; we are facing a lot of change in our career.
“The promised additional police members will definitely be welcome and I am looking forward to having more members in the growth areas.”
Leading Sen Const Owen thinks there needs to be more of a focus on the community from Victoria Police as well as the new police members promised to the south-east growth corridor by the State Government.
“I would love to see a return of the bike and foot patrols in the area and I think we need to get back to that,” he said.
“People love it – they love seeing police out and about or riding their bikes. It makes police and community feel more connected and able to have a conversation.”
“When police are patrolling in cars there is no invitation to engage so I’m hoping to get back on my bike after being mayor – it’s also great for psychical exercise.”
Leading Sen Const Owen said it was great to receive a National Police Service Medal but remained humble about his achievements while working as a police officer.
“Some of the more rewarding moments are when you catch up with young people who you spoke to at school as part of the police in schools program 15 years ago and they are coming up to me in the street and saying I impacted on their life in a positive way,” he said.
“It’s moments like that are very rewarding and I know I am having a positive impact.”
While youth crime has been a focus of the community for some time in the south-east, Leading Sen Const Owen said there needed to be more focus on young people in the community who are doing the right thing.
“A vast majority of young people are doing great things in our community including volunteering, being involved in sports clubs, and working,” he said.
“We cannot forget that and acknowledge and promote it – only a small number of young people are committing major crimes.”
Leading Sen Const Owen is proud to call himself a member of Victoria Police and said it can be a great career and a lifelong career for those that love it but he also takes the responsibility of mayor very seriously.
“Usually the mayor welcomes and thanks police from within the division but it was not appropriate for me to do that so our CEO Garry McQuillan did the welcome in this very unique situation,” he said.
“20 years is quite an achievement and policing has been a major part of my life.
“I really enjoy the community engagement and I think Victoria Police needs to move that way in the future.
“I really love that policing is challenging and look forward to going back but in meantime I am really enjoying being mayor.”
Leading Sen Const Brett Owen was one of 22 police officers from the Southern Metro Region Division Three to receive National Police Service medals.
