Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of a Healthy Shift podcast Today . It's a really special one for me and what I want to do is I just want to give you the heads up as to what this means and then we will get on with the show . In Victoria Police we use codes , as in code 1 means you're out on the road and code 2 means you're in at the station . It is a common radio call at the end of your shift to go code two and off , and today I'm going to talk about going code two and off for the final time . Shift work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be Welcome to a healthy shift . My name is Roger Sutherland , certified Nutritionist , veteran Law Enforcement Officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades . Through this podcast , I aim to educate shift workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rigours of shift work but thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show and welcome back to the show . Today is a very exciting day for me . Today it is an absolute ripper . First of all , welcome and thank you . I really do appreciate you listening to every single one of these episodes , but today I'm releasing this episode at 1600 hours on the 24th of August 2024 . That's when this was released , and the reason why it was released at that time is because it was the final time that I went code to and off as of right .
Speaker 1This minute , I have now retired from Victoria Police after 40 years and four days . The best thing is , and the first thing that I want to address is I want to thank all of you for coming along with me on this journey to this particular point in time . I realise I've been slightly deceptive . I've also had to tell people untruths when they've asked me who I work for , and the reason for that is because Victoria Police had a barrier over the top of me For the last three , four years that I've been working a healthy shift . I've actually been working here with a hammer over my head that if I ever mentioned the fact that I work for Victoria Police or anything along those lines , then I would be charged and they would shut me down , and they've had a couple of good goes at it as well . But today I can now talk all about it . As of this minute , I can talk all about it and I can talk about it all completely unencumbered . So I just want to ask you this to start off with , and it's something that's really important to me because it will make you realize just how long it's been . So just take a moment and ask yourself where were you , how old were you on the 20th of August 1984 ? The 20th of August 1984 . A lot of you will tell me that you were not even born , and there will be those of you that will tell me that you're in primary school , and I know this because majority of my listeners and majority of the people that follow me on my social medias are aged between the ages of 25 and 45 and are female . So were you born after that ? Because if you were born after the 20th of August 1984 , I've been in policing or was in policing for longer than you were born . So think about that .
Speaker 1Now . That is the actual day that I walked into the academy at Glen Waverley , which is the Victoria Police Academy , which is the converted monastery there on Mount Waverley in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne . I started after a two-year campaign to try and get into Victoria Police . From the time I was two years of age , I always wanted to join the police . I had my own light blue police shirt and I just wanted to be a policeman for that whole time , and when I was 20 years of age literally just turned 20 years of age and after a two-year campaign to try and get into Victoria Police because that's literally how long it took on the 20th of August 1984 , I started in the academy . Now I started with a squad that had believe 27 people in it . We lost one in the first few weeks and we lost another one during the course of it and I've got a feeling we graduated with 24 or 25 of us . I'm not 100% sure , I don't remember and please give me a little bit of grace . Here it was 40 years ago . So there you have it . I graduated , which was the 20th of December 1984 , I graduated under the Chief Commissioner , mick Miller , and Mick Miller was probably one of the finest Chief Commissioners the Victoria Police has ever had and I can say that I've gone through I believe seven or eight Chief Commissioners in my time in Victoria Police and Mick Miller is just one . That was a bloke's bloke . He was an actual copper and he really really stood out as the man Was not politically aligned and was really really good .
Speaker 1Now , after that happened , we then went into what's known as a PCETS program , which was police constables under the training scheme , under the extended training scheme or something like that . Now , what I will tell you is and I didn't realise this until some time later was we were actually known as the constables under the new training scheme and that's what we were nicknamed and anyway . So being the constables under the new training scheme , we then spent two years experiencing different areas in policing . We were quite lucky . It was a great program . I think we spent five months at our first training station , which I spent at Dandenong , then danced around where we spent time at Highway Patrol , time at the CPS , which is now the Socket . We spent time at Fingerprints , criminal Records . We spent time at D24 doing radio . We spent time everywhere and then we went to a senior phase training station at Glen Waverley . I was having the time of my life . I thought the job was absolutely amazing and I was so proud , even though I was all of 21 , 22 . When I look back on it , I was an absolute baby .
Speaker 1I can remember getting absolutely snowed under with paperwork at Glen Waverley . When I think back to it , it really wasn't that much . But I can vividly remember being called into the sergeant's office and told by the sergeant there Bill Peart his name was and he said to me sign this . And I said what am I signing ? And he said your resignation , you're going , I want you out now . And I went , I can't do that and I remember thinking at the time my mum and dad are going to kill me and I thought God , what am I saying ? Here am I , this big , broad policeman at 22 , probably wringing wet 64 kilos , and I've got this big , grumpy sergeant telling me go and resign . But I refused and I stuck it out , and stuck it out to the stage where it is my understanding and I believe that I have had generated quite a good reputation in my time that I've actually been in VicPol and it's been an amazing journey .
Speaker 1So then I spent time at Russell Street from about 1986 , early 86 . And I was actually working at Russell Street the day when the bomb went off . I wasn't working at Russell Street during the times that went off , at about 9.13 in the morning . I was on PM shift that day . I can actually remember that I was on afternoon shift and I was heading into work but we couldn't access and you've got to remember this is back in 1986 . It wasn't the mobile phones , text , twitter and all those sort of things and we turned up to an absolute shit show at work . We couldn't even get into the Russell Street complex or anything .
Speaker 1And I remember I used to travel to work and back in my police shirt but with like a hoodie on or a jacket on over the top , and we just took the jackets off and worked that day in jeans and runners and just on crowd control in different areas that we were put into , and it was really quite an incredible experience . It was quite taxing on us . We'd gone through the academy with Angela Taylor . She was two squads ahead of us and I've still got mates that were in the academy that are severely impacted by that incident , but Angela was in the academy at the same time as us too and of course , we lost Angela out of that Russell Street bomb as well . So that's probably one of my first impactful moments and the funeral was something that I have never experienced ever in my life , and I remember as a 22-year-old or 21-year-old being extremely emotional in uniform at the funeral . It just got me really quite badly . Yeah , so anyway , we move on from that .
Speaker 1And then there was the time when I was at Russell Street that the junior bunnies have got no idea about today , but we used to work the Parliament House steps . We used to stand on the steps , we had to be out the front on the hour , out the back on the half an hour , and then we would rotate over into the forensic science laboratory , which is this haunted building across the road where we had to sit and use a plug and play switchboard . Believe it or not , in 1986 , victoria Police Forensic Science was still using a plug and play switchboard and we had absolutely no idea how to use it and it was just so common to just completely cut people off all the time . No idea , the place was haunted as all get out . You would hear footsteps and people walking around when there was no one else . All the time , no idea , the place was haunted as all get out . You would hear footsteps and people walking around when there was no one else in the building and quite literally , it was terrifying .
Speaker 1Now , in 1986 , I then transferred to the traffic operations group at St Kilda , which is now known as the Highway Patrol , where I worked with a permanent partner for almost 18 months . Back in those days the Highway Patrol used to only have four divisions in Melbourne . We would have Division 1 and 2 , which were out of Dawson Street , working north and west . We had Nutterwadding , which worked east , and we had St Kilda that worked south . The St Kilda Highway Patrol that I worked in actually went from the Westgate Bridge all the way down to Portsea and we used to take off from the office and we had eight hours to go as far as we could and get back again and we just had an absolute ball doing it . My off-sider and I , tony , who I worked with through that time , and I had probably some of the best time in our life . It was the best job and we thoroughly enjoyed it . But once again we got exposed to those fatal accidents that traffic officers do tend to come across . During this time that I was at the Highway Patrol , hoddle Street occurred and also so did the Coin Street massacres . They both occurred . I was fortunate . In fairness , I never attended either of those events , but it was at a time in Melbourne that was a really difficult time indeed .
Now , policing in the 80s was an extremely tough time . It was really tough . The crooks were hardened criminals . They were doing armed robberies on banks and they were also doing armed robberies on Armour Guard vans . And the crooks , they were seriously hardened . But what ? I will tell you this , unlike today , it was just a game of cat and mouse . But once caught , there was always a mutual respect both ways between the crooks and the coppers . And the hardened coppers from those days and the hardened crooks just had a really , really good understanding and we just knew that . Areas like the SOG and things like that just evened things up and just kept it all under control and it was a really , really different time of policing to what it is Coming . Back then coppers were coppers , they were really tough and they were very , very resilient , the males and the females . There was height standards , there was weight standards , there was fitness standards . It was very , very difficult to get in at that point in time . They were only accepting between 1% and 3% of all applicants and you did have to be a certain height , certain weight , certain fitness . Everything had to be bang on . You could count on your mates and those that you couldn't count on or those that were exposed were sorted out and were weeded out very , very quickly .
Speaker 1The 12th of October 1986 , while I was at the Highway Patrol . I was working night shift and I was working with a colleague and I remember hearing the call to go to Wall Street and there was no one else going and then the Paran van came up and said that they were going to head to the Wall Street job . That was the last we heard from Paran . I remember motoring along we weren't in any hurry , it was just a suspect vehicle , it was a car parked in the middle of the road and we were heading to that incident . I remember quite vividly all of a sudden screaming on the radio coming up of the radio and it was the South Melbourne Sergeant and he was trying to say that there was members injured or something like that . It was all very cloudy . I can remember turning up at the Wall Street scene and it was about I think we were about the fourth or the fifth unit that arrived at the scene . Yeah , there was two police that had been murdered in uniform and I think the hardest thing that I've ever seen was seeing police murdered in uniform Extremely difficult to actually get your head around . I remember being absolutely terrified because we had no idea what was going on , what had happened , why or anything along those lines in any way whatsoever . I just remember it being dark . I remember there being two police people that were murdered . One was still alive and groaning and , quite coincidentally , it's where I ended up meeting a long-term friend of mine , graham Mummery , who is an ambulance paramedic , who I didn't realise but actually loaded Damien Eyre and we assisted and , yeah , we've still been friends to this day today as a result of that bond and that connection .
Speaker 1In November of 1986 , well , I went back to work again the next day after that . I've gone back to work after every single incident . November 1986 was the Caroline Street bomb . A lot of people won't remember the Caroline Street bomb it was . We didn't know at the time , but it was actually a comedy of errors because the person that went to set up the bomb at the Turkish embassy in Caroline Street in South Yarra blew himself up . The bomb went off unexpectedly and he blew himself up , but we didn't know that . It was just another bomb . It was just another thing that had happened between 1985 and 86 and 87 in Melbourne , and it was just another bomb . It was just another thing that had happened between 1985 and 86 and 87 in Melbourne and it was just another bombing event .
Speaker 1I then left and went to Malvern Uniform and worked the truck for 12 months at Malvern . On New Year's Eve , 1989 , I transferred to Ferntree Gully Uniform yeah , that's right , ferntree Gully which doesn't even exist anymore . On that day I transferred in with what I will categorically say would be one of the best coppers I have ever worked with in my entire life , and that is Wayne Teddy Taylor , and kudos to Wayne . Wayne was a senior person he was way more senior than I was , but he was like a brand-new rookie running around catching crooks . But he was like a brand-new rookie running around catching crooks . I will never , ever forget Wayne outrunning a 14-year-old one night and telling me I'm , I think , 36 and you're 14 and I've outrun you . What are you ? And you know , and every single shift that we worked . When I started , wayne would hold the keys up and he would say do you want to drive the pursuit or do you want to call it tonight ? And it was literally like that . Wayne had the most unbelievable knack of picking the stolen car on the road . Out of all of the traffic he would pick it . He just had a spider sense and he was quite incredible at that . So kudos to Wayne , taught me an awful lot about working , and if anybody's listening to this and has worked under Teddy Taylor or Wayne Teddy Taylor and knows him , you will know exactly what I am talking about . He whips people into an absolute friendly frenzy and he is a copper's copper . He is an absolute beauty .
Speaker 1In September 91 , ferntree Gully closed and we went to Knox . Now during this time at Ferntree Gully closed and we went to Knox . Now during this time at Ferntree Gully and Knox , I spent 18 months doing temporary duty at both Ferntree Gully and also at Knox . Cib , or what was CIB then , is now CIU . I was involved in the protracted investigation of an 18-year-old British girl who was raped by a male . We investigated that under another detective . Her and I investigated that and I remember we were at the stage where we actually had an extradition approved but found out . Of course , as Murphy's law goes , the extradition gets approved and from the extradition being approved , the next thing that occurs is he's on a plane on the way back . I remember standing at customs in Melbourne airport when he came through and arresting him at the time and I felt like Christmas . What I did learn out of this investigation was . Failure to search is failure to find . Always go and look always , because you never know what you're going to find . And I thank Jackie Porter for that one , because we went out and looked in times when I would have just never bothered and looked and we found very , very critical pieces of evidence for that one as well .
Speaker 1In September of 92 , I tried for the dog squad and missed out . I was really blessed that I missed out at that time because it was for two narcotic handlers and two bomb handlers and I really didn't want to do either of those . But I would have done anything I could possibly do to get into the dog squad and so I just went back and continued to work at Knox Uniform at the time . In September of 94 , I finally managed to get into the dog squad , without doubt , and anybody that's listened to this from the dog squad will tell you it's the best job in Vicpol and I would say categorically it probably is one of the best jobs in Vicpol that you could possibly have . Fantastic job , thoroughly enjoyed my time there . I had five dogs while I was there over the journey . I'll talk more about the dog squad later on , but I just wanted to summarize it I could categorically say as well probably the worst management , but the best job in that area . Absolutely loved it . The culture was toxic , it'd be fair to say . It's something that you could really enjoy your job because it was you and your dog , but unfortunately the dog squad comes with reputation of my dog's better than yours and because you don't all start and finish at the same place , the rumour mill and innuendo was just horrendous in that place there as well . But anyway , what can I say ? It still was an absolute highlight for me and it is a particular area that I'm fiercely proud of , working on my own , chasing offenders through backyards and locking up numerous criminals just using a dog to help me to locate . He couldn't do it without me , I couldn't do it without him and the uniform couldn't do it on their own . Great job , I was there for almost 17 years .
Speaker 1In August of 2002 , a very critical incident happened where there was a male person barricaded in an apartment in Hampton East . He was holding a 10-week-old baby and myself and my partner well , I was supervising at the time . I was upgraded to sergeant and I was supervising and I was called to an incident in Hampton East where there was this male holding this 10-week-old baby and he was being negotiated . My colleague was negotiating with him through the window , we were looking at him and suddenly and without warning , he grabbed the baby by the ankles and smashed it against the wall and killed it . We weren't sure whether he'd actually done that or not , but I will never , ever forget that scene as long as I live . My partner has never been the same and I'm not sure that he's ever been able to really return to work or return to himself properly ever since that incident .
Speaker 1But me , I returned to work the next day and just continued on . Now I'm not big noting myself here I'm making a point . I just continue to go on and keep working . But you can't get away unscathed watching a 10-week-old baby murdered . And that's literally what happened . It was a vendetta against his partner . He'd been heavily drinking . We could not get to him at all because he was barricaded in a commission flat and that just unfolded right in front of us suddenly and without notice , and it was pretty bad , to say the least . Now I'd now been exposed to some pretty bad trauma , but I always had turned up to work the next day .
Speaker 1I felt that I handled things extremely well . I compartmentalised , I dealt with and I moved on , and I moved on very , very well with it . In January of 2010 , I was promoted to a sergeant at communications and it was here that I met my best mate today , stu Watt , and I'm fiercely protective of my mate , stu . Stu and I had the time of our lives at communications . He taught me an awful lot , has taught me an awful lot along the journey and still teaches me today , and if there's one thing that he does do is he goddamn makes me think and he makes me laugh every other day . We still communicate almost daily and I learned an awful lot from him .
Speaker 1In April of 2019 , I was sexually harassed in the workplace . I'm not allowed to talk about this but , as the matter has been finalized and that's part of the conditions , but it was the beginning of the end , I can assure you , and I can tell you that that's it Now when you think about things here actually , let me just go on what actually occurred after April of 2019 , I no longer felt safe actually in the workplace and I raised this with management that I no longer felt safe because this was a personal attack on me personally . Everything else that occurred was nothing to me personally in any way whatsoever , but suddenly it was personal and I didn't cope with that in any way whatsoever at all . Well , and I had raised with management that I didn't feel safe and nothing was being done in relation to it at all . In November of 2019 , I returned to study nutrition .
Speaker 1I'd identified that there was a massive problem with health and wellbeing in the workplace and I needed something to do to transition into that retirement . I didn't want to be that person that finished work , just stopped and didn't do anything at all , and I have a massive passion for actually getting out there and helping people as much as I can possibly help . Now I know and you know as well if you're listening to this you know damn well that there is a severe lack of education in the shift work space around best shift work practice . There's a lot of new and emerging evidence around this and I was in a position where I've been lucky enough to work for 40 years in policing and also I've been able to combine evidence-based practice in nutrition to help shift workers to best cope and thrive and not just survive in their shift working life . I've been watching shift workers gaining weight . I thought it was all about nutrition , but I've now since learned that it's more about a lot of other things stress , burnout and I coach shift workers along those lines to help them to deal with all of that , combining both my education as well as my experience , and it works extremely well with my clients .
Speaker 1In around about November December , I applied for a flexible working agreement to help me with my studies . I wanted to work 10-hour shifts and I wanted to work eight shifts a fortnight , and the whole world caved in . From that moment on . I was told literally by my manager at the time that your studies have absolutely no benefit or value to Victoria Police in any way whatsoever . Okay , all right . Clearly I hadn't relayed exactly what it was I was doing , but at that point in time , he still felt that it just had absolutely no benefit . Obviously , I was upset by that particular comment because of what my intention was , what I was doing , and that I was putting myself through the studies and paying huge money to go through and do these studies to better myself , so that I could help others . I was absolutely flying and I loved the job and I was going to go to work as long as I could with my mate , stu and Stu and I was going to go to work as long as I could with my mate , stu and Stu and I were having an absolute blast doing it . I had to go to communications at the time because I needed a new work-life balance , and it provided me with the perfect work-life balance there . Quite fortunately , I met my partner , melissa , there , and I'll talk more about Melissa later on in this podcast , but I did meet her across the floor and you could say that it was a Christmas party romance or a Christmas in July romance that has continued and flourished for almost 11 years Now .
In December of 2019 , things went horribly sour and still to this day , I literally have absolutely no idea why , and I think that is the most confusing part . It's still far too early for me to discuss what happened from December 2019 right up until today , but I will say this , and I want you to listen to this very , very carefully Don't ever trust anyone that you work with , especially in policing in today's day and age . Don't think that your best mate has your back , because they may not . The one thing that I will say to you that really , really cut me to the core was it wasn't the multiple stabs that I copped in the back at the time . That got me . It was actually turning around and seeing who was holding the knife and having absolutely no idea or any comprehension of why they'd actually done it , and that was the thing that really , really upset me to this day . But I know that if I asked them exactly why they did what they did , they wouldn't know , because of the type of person that they actually are .
Speaker 1Now , in June of 2020 , which was only a few months later , due to the significant stress that I was having , I actually suffered a stroke , a transient ischemic attack , and I was off work for an entire five months at that point in time . Now , I can honestly say that I was in the best shape of my life at the time . I was fit , healthy , I was very , very low body fat , I was flying , work was going well , everything was good , but then things had gone sour in that December , and it doesn't take long before stress is a silent killer and it nearly got me . Nearly got me because you don't realise what it's actually doing to you . In that five months that I was off work , having had a stroke at work , I did not hear from work once . Not once did I hear from anybody at all , other than when my doctor gave me clearance to go back to work and I was going to go back to work and I had to organise when I'd be returning . That was the only time I heard from work in five months after having a stroke and unfortunately that is the way things are .
Speaker 1Now I can't and won't discuss what actually transpired over the following 18 months at this point in time . It will come out and it will come out in time , because there's more to come . But suffice to say I embraced everything and I took it all head on and I faced it all pretty much alone and just chipped through and dealt with each and everything that I had to deal with at the time . And for that , the fact that I stand here and can talk about it so confidently today , the fact that I stand here and can talk about it so confidently today , I am incredibly proud of myself . I have literally outlasted every single one of the group that were involved in ganging up and bullying me from management . Every single one of them are now gone . They're either out of the job or they're off on permanent sick leave themselves , with the exception of one , and that one person now stands solo in the job and has to live with what he did , and that's all I can say on that . I can also say that there was criminal activity involved to do what they did , which just goes to show how putrid they all are when they become so obsessed . They were so stupid . They left such a trail of everything that they've done . But I've just sat it out and I've just waited . But what I have learned is this , and this is super important . I no longer want to be part of that organisation because my own personal values absolutely no longer align with the organisation . It's time .
Speaker 1I've been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of what they call sanctuary trauma . The very people that I went to to get help from were the ones that actually caused the PTSD , not the exposures in the job , because I dealt with those very well . I've been under a psychologist for the last three years , who I see every fortnight , and I've been under a psychiatrist , who I see every month , and every single one of them have all said it was the solo incidents that occurred in that short period of time that actually contributed and caused the PTSD and the anxiety and the depression . And what I want to talk about when it comes to depression , and I want you , as a person listening to look at your colleagues and understand that a person that is depressed isn't necessarily a person who is sitting on the end of their bed in the darkness with a gun in their hand wanting to do themselves in .
Speaker 1High-functioning depression is something that can happen to people like me , like myself , and once I learned about high-functioning depression , I then understood what they meant when they diagnosed me with depression . A person suffering from high-functioning depression is so busy everywhere else that they end up shelving everything to do with what they need to be dealing with . So it can come out as looking like ADHD , for argument's sake , where you are so busy doing everything else and you can look fine from the outside , but you are not coping on the inside at all . But you don't know that that's the problem , and this is the issue that a lot of people from the outside look in at people suffering from PTSD and depression and they think , oh , he's not depressed , he's just sucking the system dry . Well , good luck with that , because you don't understand it and that's your problem . That's not the person's problem , that's in it . But you be careful what you say and what you do and I'll say this to you quite categorically because that person , your comments and your disbelief at what they're doing and how they're going about it who are you to try and judge and say that someone's not got PTSD , not got anxiety and not got depression , when you're not even a medical professional ? So have a bit of a think about that and you need to be very , very careful . All right , so when people see you out and about , you look happy and up and about . They actually have absolutely no idea what you're actually dealing with inside . Leaving
that one behind .
Speaker 1In January of 2020 , I started a healthy shift as a business and the goal was to help shift workers . I have now coached hundreds of shift workers one-to-one , and many of them are from Victoria Police , and I've turned their lives around when they were literally ready to pull the pin and leave . But what were those words ? Again , my study has no benefit to Victoria Police whatsoever , right . Those words again , my study has no benefit to Victoria Police whatsoever right . And that's where my values don't align with theirs anymore at all . Ego and jealousy kills people and when someone is doing well , tall poppy syndrome is horrendous . In Australia and , in particular , in Victoria Police . There are certain factions in Victoria Police that really suffer from this tall poppy and jealousy . People just don't cope .
Speaker 1The one thing that I'm truly grateful of and that is my daughter , and my daughter followed me and I've led such a good example to her that she is now a member of VicPol , and with a passion for the job like no other . She's an exceptionally good person , she's quite popular and her husband is also doing exceptionally well in the job as well , and I'm fiercely proud of both of them for carrying the legacy . I don't put them off . What I do do is I live vicariously through them from back where they are , because they don't know of all of that history , of what I've actually spoken about today . I leave that legacy and I'm really , really proud of that legacy . While I never , ever got to work a shift with you , kels , I did actually get to do shooting practice and what we call OST here in Victoria with you , and it was just a day that I will never forget . It was a true highlight for me . So I leave that legacy and I'm really , really proud of that .
Speaker 1In the two years that I was off on work cover through PTSD , anxiety and depression , I heard from Vic Pohl less than 10 times and it was always due to a problem or something that needed addressing , because someone had fired a bomb about the business and it had to be addressed . I heard from my injury management consultant once , even on emails , of asking why I hadn't heard from them . I never heard back from them . So what I want to say to you is in Victoria Police is it's not the job that kills you at all . I've had plenty of incidents where I could have capitulated but I didn't and I kept going , but it's the management with the perception that you are no good to them , and how they treat you after here . And let me just say this to you very clearly , and this is my campaign moving forward If you are a manager or you are someone in Victoria Police and someone says to you I have post-traumatic stress , I want you to think of it as an injury .
Speaker 1It's not a death sentence . It is an injury because if you burn your hand on the fire , you've got to stop touching it , and I coined that from Stu as well . If you keep touching the fire , you will continually burn your hand . If you continually expose yourself to the stress and the trauma that's been created , then it will cause you more problems . I honestly believe it's the way that things are actually handled that cause the grief to majority of the members . And that is my campaign , with A Healthy Shift moving forward to make sure that this is called out and it's addressed , because we have to do much , much better for our retiring and long-serving members that have been exposed to so much that I gave the job my life and all you've given me back is a receipt and that's just not good enough , and it's just not good enough in today's day and age , regardless , and you can tell yourself whatever you want about what you think that you've done to support and help , but I know the truth and remember that , and it's all well and truly documented and receded . So today , on August the 24th 2024 , I finally go CO2 and off for the final time . After 40 years and four days , I've retired . I'm more than ready . I am not the slightest bit sad in any way whatsoever about this , because once you realise that you just don't align with the organisation anymore , then it's time to move on .
Speaker 1I'm actually really excited to embrace this next chapter . I've watched my mate , over the last two or three months having retired , absolutely flourish in his life and it's made me realise the pressures that have been put on both him and myself without even realising . And we get together every single Wednesday . We spend 15 minutes in the steam room , we sit there and steam and then we go for a walk in the pool for an hour and it's the best therapy that you can ever do and that's just chatting with a mate no phones , no nothing , just strolling up and down the pool and just nodding and waving , smiling to other people that are in the pool , and just nodding and waving , smiling to other people that are in the pool , and just spending time with each other . To Stu I just want to say thank you . You know who you are and you know who you've been to me . You've been an exceptionally good friend and you've really helped me all the way through with so much more than you will ever know , and I'm forever grateful for that .
Speaker 1The other people that I really really do want to thank is , obviously I thank my mum , and my mum's still alive today and she has supported me as a police mum for the whole entire 40 years and four days , and today she retires as a police mum and needs a medal for that as well . It's not an easy job because you are balancing a son in the police and you're also balancing the rest of the family , shift work and everything else . It's an extremely difficult job , but my mum has been there all the way through and in full support right the way through this entire journey . My dad was there for my graduation but sadly my dad died some years later , but he was fiercely proud of me as a policeman and fully supportive of it and just loved to tell everybody that , oh , this is my son and he's in the police .
Speaker 1I also have to acknowledge I don't have to , but I want to acknowledge and I'm going to say this because this is probably a bit of a fun fact but I want to thank the kid's mum , the first wife , maria , and because she supported me through going into , going through the academy and for many , many years through the dog squad and all of those that time A fantastic mother that looked after the children . She was a great wife . Everything was really really good there and I want to say thank you very much to her as well . Also , my second wife , sonia . I have to say thank you to her for supporting me through the times that I was actually through the dog squad and also to communications and getting through into that promotion at that time as well . So it's important that I acknowledge both of them of that promotion at that time as well . So it's important that I acknowledge both of them and I also acknowledge Sonia's children at the same time . It would be remiss of me not to thank my own children for their love and their support all the way through . As you know , kelsey carries the legacy now for us , but Kyle also works in the same similar environment doing shift work and has been really , really supportive of me all the way through . They both have .
Speaker 1I want to thank my friends , the people who have always just popped up and just been there without putting any pressure on , without being insistent or anything along those lines . They've just been absolutely fantastic . I have three people from VicPol who have unconditionally supported me over the past three years and they've been right there messaging and they've also been there weekly for me , and that is Stu and Marnie and Dermot , and I want to thank all three of you because you've all been a major contributing factor in getting me to where I am today and I want to say thanks very much to you for what you've done there . I'm not sure where the rest of you went , but you see , unfortunately that's typical in policing you get forgotten , but that's okay , because what you've done is you've shown me who you are and that I don't mean that much , but I was a colleague . But what I want people to remember is that there's a difference between friends and colleagues , and the people who are at work are your colleagues and that's all they are . They're probably generally not people that you would spend time with outside , and if you keep your circle small , then you will find who your real friends are out of all of that .
Speaker 1But I will say this , though , to those of you that I lost contact with it's very , very important that you don't listen to management attempting to hide their incompetence by spreading rumors about your engagement . All right , it's not and never was true . What it was , it was them covering their ass . But I always engaged . I always responded to texts , phone calls and emails every single time . So there's no truth in that in any way whatsoever . But what I have done is I've learned a lot from you .
Speaker 1I lose a listener today as well . See ya , the one that's listened to everything that I've done , trying to catch me out . I'm really sorry to see you go because it's going to be really disappointing for you from here on in actually listening , trying to catch me out and doing what I'm doing . But what I do want to do is I really want to say thank you to you for showing me who you are and what you actually did . You're a gem and you have to live with it , but you know what I just want to say thanks very much for listening , because what you've done is you've watched me go from strength to strength here and you're still stuck doing what you're doing strength to strength here and you're still stuck doing what you're doing .
Speaker 1And what I do want to say to you is , right now , here I am and I've gone in and I'm going code to and off for the final time , and I really do want you to know I'm spending the day today with the people that I spent my very , very first day in the Academy with . As we celebrate our 40th anniversary Code to and off and I won't catch you on the next shift , but I will catch you on the next pod . Thank you for listening . If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me , you can go to a healthy shiftcom . I'll catch you on the next one .