The new Commander of Tasmania Police's Northern District wants to ensure that officers have the right support to deal with the psychological challenges of police work.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Stuart Wilkinson has confirmed as Commander on Monday - a role in which he has served in an acting capacity for three months.
Earlier this month, the Tasmanian Police Association released data pointing to a mental health crisis within the force, including four serving officers who have taken their lives in the past four years, and a further six attempted suicides.
Commander Wilkinson said the focus placed on officer wellbeing had improve significantly since he started policing in 1993, but there was still a long way to go.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"Dealing with the psychological challenges that police and emergency service workers are facing, and providing that wellbeing support and enhancing the resilience of our members, is going to be one of the really big challenges in the future," he said.
"Policing is a challenging business. We see things that the rest of the public don't have to see.
"What we can do is just listen to our members and encourage them to talk about challenges that they're experiencing, and really open up that communication with them, and provide them support in order that their resilience is at the required level."
Encouraging healthy physical and mental lifestyles outside of work was a key priority, he said.
Commander Wilkinson has risen through the ranks in recent years after being appointed Inspector in 2014, and Acting Commander of Western District. His substantive role was Detective Inspector of the Devonport Criminal Investigation Branch since 2019.
He said this experience resulted in improved ways of emergency services communicating with the community.
"The biggest lesson I had was to be really in touch with the community, as well as with our members, communicating with them, keeping them in the loop and informed," Commander Wilkinson said.
"It was able to give our police members confidence in what they were doing in a really unprecedented challenge."
He will be Commander at a time when the Launceston Police Station undergoes a $7 million renovation to improve security and the overall amenity of the 44-year-old building.
When it came to policing numbers, Commander Wilkinson said being able to efficiently prioritise jobs with the safety of the public front of mind would be crucial, given the "finite" number of officers available.
This year will also see government support payments wound back to their pre-COVID levels, with Commander Wilkinson saying that police will monitor any increases in criminal behaviour as a result.
"It's certainly something we think could happen," he said.
"But it's very hard to predict.
"It's not only us, but all the other agencies and non-government organisations out there offering and providing assistance to the community. We're still hopeful that we'll get through the period where there's a reduction in these payments, and we maintain the same kind of offence levels as we're seeing now."
Peter Harriss was appointed Commander of Strategy and Support.