Fresh faces on the beat in Queanbeyan

The ever-changing face of policing is being boosted with two fresh-faced probationary constables on the beat in Queanbeyan.

For the first time in more than a decade, two probationary constables have joined Cooma Police Station, while Queanbeyan’s two new recruits are Tegan Wells-Noon and Flynn Smith.

The four recruits were among 177 men and 92 women who joined the NSW Police Force after graduating from the Goulburn Police Academy at the end of August.

Flynn is from the Wollongong area and Tegan first lived in Young before moving to south-western Sydney.

They told Region Media their first month on the job has been very busy but they’re settling into Queanbeyan Police Station’s temporary location in Morisset Street nicely.

Flynn said his first job was a domestic violence incident where a woman’s ex-boyfriend had come over and smashed some of the woman’s personal property.

Tegan’s first callout was to attend a motor vehicle accident in a school zone where the driver had a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.

“It’s been really busy and I got thrown into the deep end, but that’s what we expected and that’s how you learn best,” Tegan said.

Flynn said they are learning plenty from their senior officers who are mentoring the recruits into the new careers.

“I like it here so far. I’ve met a lot of different people and they’ve mostly been pretty easy to talk to,” said Flynn.

Both probationary constables are posted to Queanbeyan for the next three years and look forward to getting to know the Queanbeyan community.

“Some people can be stand-offish and don’t want to bar of you, but there are other people who want to say hello,” said Flynn

“Getting to know the community is really important because you can more easily have conversations with them, so I think that community engagement is just as important as upholding the law.

“If we treat someone with a bit of respect in the first place, they will hopefully come back to us and tell us something that helps us do our jobs better.”

Tegan said, “I always like to see young children who give us a smile and a wave, and we can wave back or say hello and it can make their day”.

Both are very keen to make a lifelong career in the police force.

Tegan is keen to get into forensics and hopes her first role will provide a pathway into the different roles that policing provides.

Flynn comes from a family of police officers and is following in the footsteps of his father, a senior police officer in Sydney.

Acting Inspector Ben Bowles, of Queanbeyan Police, said the station’s new recruits allows them to focus on strategies that prevent crime from occurring in the first place.

“Our crime figures have steadily been dropping over the last decade, so the increase in police numbers allows us to focus on those prevention strategies that keep our community safe.

“These new recruits are going to interact with our community on a daily basis and the actions they take will impact people’s lives for the rest of their lives,” acting Inspector Bowles said.

Member for Monaro John Barilaro welcomed the new recruits to the ranks of the Monaro Police District.

“Being a police officer is a great honour and I commend these new officers for making the brave decision to put the community’s safety ahead of their own,” Mr Barilaro said.

He said the NSW Government is investing $583 million in 1500 extra officers over the next four years, the biggest increase in three decades.

This includes an extra 18 rural crime investigators to be deployed across regional NSW to target country crime including stock theft, illegal hunting, stealing, trespass and firearms offences.

Original Article published by Michael Weaver on The RiotACT.