FOR the men and women who spend each day policing our local communities, recognition is the last thing on their mind.
Local Area Commander Inspector Gerard De Vries said opportunities for officers to celebrate their peers “don’t come around very often”.
Officers from across the region, and their family and friends, gathered for an awards ceremony at Swan Hill Club last week to celebrate the long and valued contributions of a group of officers.
“It feels really good just to be able to have the chance to recognise these people for their commitment and the effort that they make for us,” Insp De Vries said.
“Even with this event, there were a number of other officers who would have loved to be in attendance, but we’ve still got to be able to provide a policing service to our community.
“It ends up being a limited number of people who are able to get to things like this, because obviously we still need to keep the lights on.
“There were some really significant awards handed out, for all the contributions that people have made.
“Not only for our organisation, but primarily for their effort and commitment to our community and ensuring that our community is kept safe.”
Insp De Vries was the recipient of a Regional Commendation for his efforts coordinating the evacuation readiness of townships in last year’s flooding.
Other Regional Commendations were awarded to Sergeant Roberta Barry, the Swan Hill Police Service Area, and the Charlton, Donald and Kerang Clusters, all for their flood response.
Insp De Vries said the efforts of police officers across the service area during the flooding had made him “immensely proud”.
“We play a key role in emergency management, no matter what the emergency is,” he said.
“The floods were here, impacting our community for nearly three months, so we really have to play a key role across the entire of our police service area.
“From Charlton and Donald, stretching through Cohuna and Kerang and through Swan Hill all the way to Robinvale, the question was, how do we best support all of those communities?
“We had people who were isolated, and those who had been displaced from their homes, so we worked with the other emergency management services to be involved in that emergency response.
“Many of our staff live within these communities as well and were impacted just as much. But we’ve got a role that we need to perform as police, and they did that without question.
“I attended a lot of community meetings over the time of the floods, and when you look at the response, it was the effort of our whole community that made the difference.
“When a community has any kind of crisis, their response is a reflection of how strong and how connected the community is.
“We’d have people coming down to the police station, whether it’s to drop off cakes or biscuits, or to just have a chat and voice their concerns.
“It’s just really nice when we are able to speak to the community about how we can support one another.”
All Recipients:
National Emergency Medal:
Bushfires 2019-20.
- Senior Constable Benjamin Coloe
- Senior Constable Antionette Coobs – also awarded the Victoria Police Service Medal
- Constable Michael Crossett
- Senior Constable Nikki Dainat
- Senior Constable Tobias Gilmour
- Sergeant Martin Nunn – also awarded the Victoria Police Service Medal
- Leading Senior Constable Andrew Petersen
35 years’ service award:
- VPS2 Jennifer Gilbert – also awarded VPSM 30 Year Clasp
National Medal 3rd Clasp:
- Sergeant Nigel Macdonald – also awarded the VPSM 45 Year Clasp
Divisional Commendation:
- Detective Senior Constable Stephen Ablett – also awarded the National Emergency Medal
Regional Commendation:
Western Region Flood event 2022.
- Sergeant Roberta Barry
- Inspector Gerard De Vries – also awarded 35 Year Service Award, Victoria Police Service Medal 35 Year Clasp, National Medal 2nd Clasp
- Charlton Cluster
- Donald Cluster
- Kerang Cluster
- Swan Hill PSA
