After seven weeks in the job, he feels excited about the
work here and is already imagining all sorts of projects with the community.
When he worked in Manly, he also lived there with his family, including an
18-year-old son. His son’s age made him far more conscious that, in working to
make that area safe for others, he was also creating a safe place for his own
now young adult son. It challenged and brought his work alive in a special way.
Since his arrival in Redfern, he is reaffirming his belief
in high visibility police work – the presence of police out and about in the
community, visiting local groups, talking with people on the streets and
building trusting relationships. He would like a return to the day when parents
told their children to trust the police as their friends and helpers.
In Manly, he was known for his commitment to police fitness
and had them jogging along the beaches among the people. In Redfern, he plans
to have police, including himself, working out in local gyms and practicing
boxing with the locals. He has already been to Tony Mundine’s gym and is going
to continue to do some training there.
One of his first projects was to plan, with officer Georgie Israel,
an Oz Tag Football competition with kids from The Block. The matches would be
played on a grassy area there and the police would share food with the kids and
parents after matches. They have already had a match at Wentworth Park,
which the Aboriginal kids won! The Commander believes that to “hang around”
with young people and parents not only builds better relationships but helps
enhance the possibility of law-abiding life for the future.
He encourages his officers to mingle with the community in
all sorts of environments – like the NAIDOC Week events and community markets
in Alexandria Park. Two of his officers recently left
him a message saying how much they enjoyed going to the markets and how
impressed they were with the standard of goods sold there.
Having said all that, he knows that policing is not as
simple as building relationships. It is mostly about acting effectively to deal
with and prevent crime, especially crimes like drug trafficking. He believes
that, when people report things they expect to see results and recognises that
community members are often able to pass on to the police real information
about what goes on beneath the surface.
He doesn’t see policing as the answer to everything –
obviously the police are not trained counsellors, etc. They are fundamentally
those who try to reduce crime in an area. He sees the force as one element in a
number of community resource groups and agencies and imagines them conferring
with others in creating a better place for people to live. His people already
meet with agencies like the Redfern Waterloo Authority and the staff of the
City of Sydney
as well as other service groups.
He will be showcasing the policing work at Redfern to
diverse communities around the country by representing it at state-wide
conferences and consultations.
In the meantime, he applauds the officers of the Redfern
command, with whom he now works and, at the same time, invites the community to
give him a reality check in the days ahead.
The South Sydney Herald wishes him well!
Photo: Ali Blogg – Commander Luke Freudenstein
Source:
South Sydney Herald August 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au