Noosa students have learnt about the work local police officers do for the community with a presentation from Noosa Police Station’s Senior Constable Jess Phillips.
Senior Constable Phillips told the Noosa District State High School Year 12 Social and Community Studies students that she followed her brother’s footsteps into policing after completing her schooling on the Sunshine Coast.
“I wanted to help people and make a positive difference to the community,“ Senior Constable Phillips said.
The students were surprised to find the majority of the police call outs in the local community are related to domestic violence, usually fuelled by alcohol and drugs.
“Unfortunately, there has been a dramatic increase to call outs over the past year,“ she said.
“Maybe people are becoming more aware and are wanting to report incidents to the police. No one would want to have serious harm or the death of a person on their conscience, so they’re reporting these incidents a lot more.“
The students were also surprised to learn how the police are treated so differently when they are in the community in uniform.
“The police uniform can be a real hinderance and target. People forget that I’m still actually a person. I’m a mum, a wife, I enjoy going to the gym. Being a police officer is just a small part of who I am, but many people don’t get it,” she said.
Another problem Senior Constable Phillips regularly encounters is the blurring of the legislature and the police in the minds of the general public.
“We don’t write the laws. People don’t realise that our job is not to make up the rules, we just enforce them. We may not necessarily agree with the laws, but we have vowed to serve and protect, so upholding the law in Queensland is what we have to do,” Senior Constable Phillips said.
The class enjoyed hearing some of Senior Constable Phillips’ stories and learning about the training undertaken to become a police officer.
“Be aware that if you come across a grumpy police officer, it’s highly likely the job they came to before their interaction with you may have been something pretty awful. I’ve had people die in my arms, then the next job I had was a noise complaint at a teenage party. As you can imagine, I wasn’t terribly empathetic that night. Police officers are human,” Senior Constable Phillips said.
She told the students that the nature of the job can leave emotional scars, and some police suffer post traumatic stress disorder as a consequence.
“It’s difficult not to take some jobs on board and get pretty emotional about it all. You have to remind yourself that you are making a positive difference, even if it doesn’t feel like it on some jobs,” Senior Constable Phillips said.
The content of this presentation assisted students in consolidating their learnings about the community’s perception of the police, with their upcoming assessment piece encouraging the students to write on this subject.
The class found Senior Constable Phillips’ presentation to be fascinating, with some students now seriously considering a career in law enforcement, including Year 12 student Sophie Young.
“I really enjoyed Jess’s talk. She made me realise that policing could be a good option for me, especially as the force value female police officers more than ever before,” Sophie said.
