WA Police Confidential (Formerly Operation Podcast)
The official WA Police Force Podcast
WA Police Confidential (Formerly Operation Podcast)
Ep 28 - Driver Caught Playing Minecraft
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Episode 28 of WA Police Confidential! The official WA Police Force Podcast.
On this week’s show:
- Hear from a Road Policing officer about catching a motorist playing video games while driving on Tonkin Highway!
- Sergeant Josh Otten joins the show to discuss regional policing in Kununurra and a narrow escape from an armed offender.
- We speak to a former trapeze artist from the Joseph Ashton circus - 7th generation acrobat First-Class Constable Jordan Ashton, now working at Armadale Police Station.
And more !
This podcast discusses real-life crimes and law enforcement matters. It may include detailed descriptions of criminal activity, traumatic incidents, and other content that could be confronting or distressing, particularly for victim survivors. Listener discretion is advised. If you find any of these topics upsetting, please consider whether this content is right for you and seek support if needed.
SPEAKER_04Welcome to WA Police Confidential, the official weekly podcast of the Western Australia Police Force. I'm one of your hosts, Joey Catanzaro.
SPEAKER_05And I'm Sergeant Nate Gilmore. And I'm Maya Grave. In this episode, we're going to be talking to Sergeant Josh Otten about being a recipient of the Bravery Awards, which tested his courage and his bravery and his skills. Find out more later in the episode.
SPEAKER_10Absolutely. We also talked to him about a crocodile, a bit of a snappy incident that we're going to be.
SPEAKER_04And bikeys.
SPEAKER_10And bikeys.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, crocodiles, bikees, bravery, crikey. Crikey. Crikey. Also, if you come across an accident on our roads, and you as a just a normal average person, can you direct traffic? Should you direct traffic? Is there any risks? We'll answer those questions a little bit later.
SPEAKER_10Speaking of traffic, we'll also talk to an officer about one of the more unusual things seen while out on a traffic stop.
SPEAKER_04Okay, and it does involve playing a game. We're not gonna we're not gonna reveal what just yet, but it's pretty dangerous, to be honest. Um yeah, uh very dangerous, in fact.
SPEAKER_05And um to finish, we're going to also speak to a seventh generation acrobat who's taken on a very different role, now working at the Armadale Police Station.
SPEAKER_04Wow, okay. Well, uh on that note, let's flip straight in, jump straight in, somersault straight in to the episode. Uh, this is confidential. Welcome back to WA Police Confidential. Well, last week we had uh a well-overdue uh investger ceremony, if you will, for uh our bravery award recipients within the Western Australia Police Force. And certainly there was some incredible examples of courage and heroism and people uh performing their duty and keeping the community safe. Um one of the recipients uh is Sergeant Josh Otten, who joins us today. Josh, back in I think it was 20 was it 2020?
SPEAKER_122021. 2021, yeah.
SPEAKER_042021 when I was a reporter, because I had covered this story and I was running around looking for CCTV whilst you were running around just prior to that, I think, um, with a with a a fella pointing a gun at you. Yeah, yeah, correct. Yeah. Um, so he was uh, I believe, um, a bikey associate. And um I don't I look, I can't recall the circumstances, but maybe you can tell me look, how did it come to be that there's a guy on the streets of Perth with a firearm and suddenly you're confronted with him?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, it it came about as a job that we weren't necessarily uh prepared for it to become what it became. Uh it was just a um our job codes, it was a 3-9, so a susperson job. Uh, which you go to, ten of them are shift. It's just generally someone who might be doing something that a member of the public it catches their attention, they'll call it through as a sus person and uh off we go to it. Most of them are harmless, absolutely nothing. This one, um, again, like you mentioned, yeah, the bikeys had um, for whatever reason, were out doing bikey things, and these two particular guys were out recovering debts and recovering some money and um just doing some nefarious standover kind of thing. Yeah, a bit of standover stuff, and they were in a a laneway behind some units, you know, preparing to go and do some standover stuff. Um when we came across some and one guy just instantly not surrendered, but um stopped for police and engaged with police, and my guy he just took off running straight away, and then that's what then eventuated into and again, someone running isn't it's no big deal, police deal with that all the time. Off he went, uh like, oh excellent, you know, bit of a bit of a chase, happy days, and then he produced a gun and then he pointed at himself and he pointed at police, and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger to turning out to like the shootout on the freeway now, as it's sort of known.
SPEAKER_04Yes. So and and look, that's the the circumstances, and um certainly um I think well probably what we should do is just have a quick listen to some of the body worn camera from from um your vest uh during that incident.
SPEAKER_02Put it down, put it down one person go taser. One person goes laser.
SPEAKER_06Put it down, put it down!
SPEAKER_04Put it down Okay, so that was pretty that's obviously uh a pretty intense moment. Um how are you uh how are you feeling at the time? Like were you did did you ever sort of think maybe I'm I might not actually go home today?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, it went from zero to well past a hundred straight away, zero to a thousand. Um I've been involved in a lot of crazy stuff and I've been lucky enough in Waypol to, you know, do some big jobs and some really good work, and this one just escalated very fast. And at first when he produced the gun, um as crazy as it sounds, I wasn't all that concerned. I was worried that maybe he would fire at us and uh I was sort of more concerned he'd hit the guys behind me. Uh I'm not too sure why I wasn't so concerned about he'd hit me. But I did think, oh, if he misses me, those three guys behind me, so I was concerned about that. It wasn't until uh he actually fired it and uh not too long after that pointed the gun directly at me where I tasered him over the gate that I had a a real dreadful realisation, like uh he's won. Like not that it's a win or lose competition, but I just felt he's won this. Um, you know, my time's done. And luckily enough he had a he didn't know it, and I didn't know it at the time, but he had a stoppage in his firearm and the gun wasn't able to fire. Um but if it did, he would have just shot me point blank in the front of the head from me to UA quite easily that close, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_12I did not know that. Okay. If you had known what a tap rack was, which is what we do to our guns, that would have been no more Josh Otton, unfortunately. She's always Josh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that really kind of brings her home. Yeah. That's no good. Um, I think we should also just have a quick listen to. So obviously there was a course but before we do that, uh, there's a a big police response, and certainly there were uh uh a number of very worthy uh recipients um uh at the bravery awards who were involved in in the I guess the arrest of this this uh individual. Well, have a listen for yourself.
SPEAKER_02Get down! Get down! Put it down!
SPEAKER_13Put the gun down!
SPEAKER_02Get down the ground!
SPEAKER_11Put it down the ground.
SPEAKER_04All right, so Josh, that that was um yeah, that was a pretty extraordinary um effort from you and your colleagues. Um Maya, uh you wanted to uh point out you've recently um been up and visited Josh in Catonara, where he's based at the moment.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, so um up in the Kimberley, it's beautiful up there. I loved my time up there. It's very nice, very warm. You showed us to some great places and you guys do some awesome police work up there as well. It's it's super chaotic, it's always busy up there. But what was that difference kind of going between working in a busy metropolitan Perth police station to then going regional and heading out to Connamara?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, I'm definitely one of those success stories of Regional Shield turning regional police officer. So um fun for you.
SPEAKER_04And just so just so people know, Regional Shield is uh is the operation where we uh we would take officers from the metro area and they have the opportunity to go for a couple of weeks to um a place where operationally they might we might need extra police officers for a short period of time. Correct.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, obviously metro stations are far larger than uh regional stations, so we can parachute in some, not physically parachute them in, but parachute in some regional processes too.
SPEAKER_04We did have uh an entry uh into our drawing competition for which suggested WA police should have a parachute squad, but you know, agreed. I will I'll do that.
SPEAKER_12Okay. Uh so I'm funnily enough, I am the very first person. I was the very first ever regional shield deployment in 2022 where I also met yourself. In Broom. So in Broom, we went. I rocked up to work and it was the big red button had been pushed. Um, I was at Rogue at the time. Quick, get to broom, it's going off. The kids are chasing people in cars. There's this new TikTok challenge, it's gone crazy, and that's you know, Rog's part of their charter is to you have a go bag and off we went. Got there and got told the media will be coming out for a ride along with me. And uh in true Josh Hotton style, I was then the next day advised I needed a haircut because I appeared on the on the news doing uh like a talking head. Um, cheers, Joey. You are welcome. You are welcome. Mr. Blanch rang up Kimbly Dio. I'm like, who's that guy? Get a haircut.
SPEAKER_04You you were looking a bit point break, yeah. I want to say you said the message was good though. The message was good, and it was a good, I can I just say uh an eye-opening uh ride along. I know we we're far-reaching and wide interview uh right now, but but but it was you know, there were lots of kids on the streets um of you know the tiniest little children, but the seeing the way that um that you and your colleagues interacted with them and how much they well they really liked you guys and regarded, well regarded you were um up there was yeah, it was yeah, it was heartbreaking to see them out there. It was lovely to see that police were out there, didn't see didn't see anyone else.
SPEAKER_12No, and that's still a a problem with sort of still four years later, still trying to figure all that out. And you know, I was luckily enough from that deployment the very next morning, I think it was um the big red button in Kananara got pushed. Kanunara had now joined in the the craziness. So the six of us who were on that deployment, um I was the supervisor at the time, so I got again that morning to myself and two other officers, we flew to Kananara. So I did five regional shield trips. So we're three weeks back then. I did five of them, like almost three weeks in Kananara, three weeks back in Perth, three weeks in Kanunara. And then one of the officers was like, you may as well move here. Like you live at the hotel in Kananara, you're in Kanunara more than Perth. I was like, you know what, good idea. An opportunity came up to uh transfer up there and I put in and got the spot straight away. And I haven't looked back, absolutely love it there. Um I was fortunate enough to be promoted there to a sergeant since being there, so now my tenure's started again, which excellent good old man. Um but it's uh it's a very unique place to police, nothing even remotely close to the metro, and you know it's not everyone's jam, 100%. There's people who get up there and just go, oh no, what have I done? Yeah, um, you know, that's everything in Waypos, there are any jobs like that. But like I say to people, if Anaconda and BCF are your favourite stores, then Kanana is the place for you to work. It's it's a that's a good selling point, yeah. It's a very good selling point. You become very good at online shopping on the Anaconda and the BCF website. I can imagine.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Uh okay, so to give uh people an example about, as you said, the you know, the the sort of the wild, unpredictable nature and different nature of policing up there. Um recently had a call out for uh a sort of a let's just say a road crossing, a different sort of road crossing.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, we did a um uh traffic hazard, I think it comes through, as or a traffic breach. Yeah, yeah. Um it sort of couldn't have worked out any better. We have uh the Waypal are you know trialling a new thing now where they're giving people the opportunity to recruit from the town they're from and then post straight back to that town. So you've instantly got that connection to the town. You've probably already got a house, so it's sort of win-win for everyone. So we have a new fellow on my team, Frosty. He came from he was my Cairo in uh Kananara. Now he's my probationer, yeah. So free.
SPEAKER_04So from fixing your back to having your back.
SPEAKER_12Very good. Well done. Very good. He's um thank you. Night shift. I keep him in the office for custody and um back cracks and massages dual purpose. It's actually amazing. Um, so he I took him out for a bit of a you know, sergeant probationer um pep talk and just get get his vibe and my expectations and whatnot. And I was explaining to him that, you know, having done metro and regional policing, he his stories and his experiences will be so uniquely different from his metro counterparts from the academy. He was the only one who went regional, and the rest are now in the booze bus and Perth police station and etc. etc. Doing night safe and Breathows. You know, that's Kananara couldn't be, you may as well work at a different universe. It's so different. So literally those words came out of my mouth and the phone goes off, cad job, uh, crocodile blocking the highway.
SPEAKER_10Um what goes through your mind when you see something like that? You know, crocodiles are known to be Kananara's basically backdoor pet.
SPEAKER_12Yeah.
SPEAKER_10But what what was going through your mind?
SPEAKER_12For me, it was like, oh, no dramas. Like it's that's a I'm so used to that now. The amount of snakes and crocodiles and cane toads and things that are on the roads, it's just it's just Kananara for him. Even though he already is from Kananara, uh, he was just like, this is a police job. I was like, yeah, essentially, like anyone could go do it, but a member of the public's called. So now, in order to deal with that cadre or get rid of that cat job, we need to go and, you know, do it. So Diversion Dam, which is in Kananara, which is the road into town from the broom side, that's the only way into Kananara via road. So if it is blocked, you know, no one's getting in, no one's getting out. We drive there, and sure enough, there's a one and a half metre freshwater crocodile on the road that's just crossing the road. You know, why did the crocodile cross the road? I don't know. I don't know. Which is actually quite considerable. Because that particular bridge is what separates our saltwater crocodiles from our freshwater crocodiles. So everyone knows swim on this side, but not that side. And I've always said, but why don't the crocodiles just cross the road and swap sides? So there must be salties in the swimming side, and everyone's like, oh no, they'd never cross the road. The crocodiles do cross the road, as we've now found out. Wow. So myself and Frosty attend this job, and this crocodile's on the road, and um, you know, we again there's no training at the academy for how to deal with crocodiles, so we get our batons first and we rack our batons, and we're not gonna beat it up, but we're just using them as a bit of a prod and poke, yeah, just to motivate it. Off the road, it was quite snappy as you'd expect a crocodile to be. Yeah, fair.
SPEAKER_04But in my dealings, poked and prodded, but yeah.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, yeah, no one enjoys that. Yeah. Um, but I did identify, and I've because I've done so many of these now, the crocodile was exhausted. So he'd obviously I think he'd gotten onto the bridge and then had spun around a few times and gone to get off it, but then spun around and gone the other way. And um, you know, fun fact, crocodiles get lactic acid buildup, and it's actually quite harmful for them. So they can't do a lot on land, they need to be back in water. So they won't, they won't, they sometimes they go long distances to find new water or food, but it's um it's not good for them. Gotcha. So this one I identified he was just very slow under the circumstances. So we use that opportunity to, I think I used a a brown forensics bag and a like a plastic lid that was holding, like kept the first aid kit in the police car, and we jammed his head on the road to keep his mouth down because upwards pressure is quite weak, but downwards pressure is where all the strength is. So pinned his nose down. I got Frosty, quick, grab him, grab him. So Frosty grabs him, we get him by the snout so he can hold it shut, and I pick him up by the tail. And um, there's some other police officers there, so we got the obligatory photo with this crocodile. Everyone just had a bit of a pat, and we did a bit of a science lesson. You know, this bit feels nice, and that bit's hard, and that bit's soft, and and then we had the salty side to the left and the freshwater side to the right, so we um just yeeted him into the water on the right hand side and he swam off and off he went. And that was yeah, uh Frothy's sort of baptism of fire to the just the strange, wonderful things you can do in Kananara.
SPEAKER_04Would you so you said traffic, but was that is it kind of technically a move on notice, as they call it in Paris?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, we we moved him on and we we sent him on his way. Um, yeah, absolutely. He's uh you know, he's safe now, but it's you know, it'll happen again. Once wet season comes, they become more um because it's cold blooded, so the water temperature rises, air temperature rises, they start to move around a lot more. So it's you know, give it a few months more months, that'll be quite a common thing that police go to. Yeah.
SPEAKER_10Who would have thought? I mean, yeah, going to a crocodile in your first week, being a police officer out in a regional place, you know, something that you wouldn't expect.
SPEAKER_12Yeah.
SPEAKER_10Some people would probably run from that. That would be a very scary situation.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, again, it's not everyone's cup of tea. There's probably officers at the station who would have just been like, nah, you can stay on the bridge if it wants to run the gauntlet with trucks and cars. You know, good on it. Um, but that's you know, that's why I want to be in Catanara. You know, we still do your generic law enforcement type stuff and FE and all that sort of thing that you do everywhere. But you know, you're gonna get jobs where it's a crocodile on the road or a snake in some lady's lounge chair or whatever. It's just you never know what you're gonna get.
SPEAKER_04I loved that. I love that. Um look, um Josh, I just think congratulations to you again, mate, on the bravery award. Well overdue, um, and so it certainly well deserved. And um, yeah, I uh I think there's you know there's probably um probably at least one fan of yours swimming down the freshwater side of the uh the the river um that's uh probably yeah very appreciative of your your efforts up in the bush as well.
SPEAKER_12No worries, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_10This is confidential.
SPEAKER_04This is confidential, and we are, as a police force, as you probably uh well aware, recruiting at the moment. Uh lots of opportunities to join, and we take people who are fresh out of school sometimes, but also people who maybe want to change their career and and try something different. We've had people who come from the mining sector, from I think Nate, you uh used to sell jet skis and build jet skiers. Jet ski salesman, yeah. Yep, yep. Um, all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. But our next guest, uh, which is first class constable.
SPEAKER_09First class constable, Jordan, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Jordan Ashton, um, has come from a very, very, I would say, um, interesting uh line of work before this. Jordan, what was it?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, well, I was in a traveling circus. You're in a travelling circus.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so so straight away, straight off the bat, I'm just gonna say, much like policing, you're probably used to dealing with clowns. Yeah, yeah, a bit of overlap. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09Um yeah, so I was I was born into the Ashton Circus family, which has was the Ashton Circus was started in 1850.
SPEAKER_04So older than the Western Australia Police Force. I guess it is. Yeah, yeah, that's incredible. Wow.
SPEAKER_09So my great-great-great-grandfather James Henry Ashton, he came over as a convict, which is kind of ironic.
SPEAKER_04Ooh, wow.
SPEAKER_09Okay, geez, he'd be I wonder if he'd be proud or upset. I don't know. Well, he did his time. Yeah, he did his time, and he was a really good horseback rider. Uh-huh. Like he would stand on the back of the horses where they're going around. And so he finished his time, started a circus, and that was Ashton Circus. Um, and that circus kept running through seven generations. I mean, technically still going now. My dad's still going, and my brother. But that um Ashton Circus closed in 2001. Yep. Um, and then my dad started his own show as well, which which kept it going. Um, but yeah, I was I was born into the circus, born in Adelaide, but that just happened to be where we were at the time.
SPEAKER_04So I had no fixed address.
SPEAKER_09No. Yeah. Lived in a caravan until I was my whole life until I was 26. Until I left the circus. That's incredible. Yeah. Traveling. But we obviously the big caravans, because we live in them full time, but still. Earliest memory. Earliest memory. Earliest memory. Um probably training, probably training with my dad. Um by the time I was five, I had a a hand-to-hand balancing act with my dad in the show by the time I was five. So we were training when when I was three, three and a half. Um, and then yeah, when I was five, it was in the show. It was sort of like sports acro style, you know, hand-to-hand balancing somersaults, all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_10What was what was your I guess act, your performance?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so my main act was flying to peace. So yeah, I don't know if people know like you're swinging through the air, do somersaults, and you catch the person like hanging down. Pretty dangerous. Yeah, like yeah, it's like we have a net, safety net.
SPEAKER_04So and that that's you know, that that it's there.
SPEAKER_09Uh sometimes it I did fall through it once, but I fell through the front apron once when I was I think I would have been nine or 10. I did a double somersault, caught one-handed. Went out the the front, so you catch the catcher and the catch go out the front, and there's what we call an apron, so then it's flat, and then the apron's at the front, and it slipped and I hit the side of the apron, fell through it, and landed in the elevated seating. Right next to the patron. Like the funny part was that that day it was packed, like 750 people packed, and that seat, the kid that was sitting there was sitting on his dad's lap. Oh. And I hit the seat, broke the seat off the thing. I I was fine, like I had a headache and like a bit of a sore back, but I was fine than that. Went straight back up and uh yeah, did dismount into the into the uh net at the end of the act. But yeah, so that was kind of my life growing up.
SPEAKER_04That's it, that's incredible. Um, okay, I'm gonna ask. Have any of your acrobatic skills proven to be useful on the job policing?
SPEAKER_09I'm good at jumping fences. Yeah, that's the one overlap, the one uh trait, I guess, yet from saying I'm pretty good at jumping fences. I can get over high fences quick. So it does come in handy for chases and stuff like that. But that's probably yeah, I guess. And entertaining kids sometimes like see kids and stuff and you know, doing somersaults and whatnot.
SPEAKER_04I can imagine that's awesome. What about okay? So how did you go? Because obviously, some the old story is yeah, kids want to run away and join the circus. You ran away from the circus. Yeah. How did how was that conversation with your old man, given the the family history?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, they were it was tough. Um, I think by the time I was 20, I sort of knew that I didn't want to do it anymore. And it's hard to perform when you don't want to do it because you every time you perform in front of people, you gotta give like 100%, you gotta be enthusiastic. And you know, I just knew that I I didn't want to do this anymore, but it was hard because it was all I knew. Growing up, it was not just a job, it's a life lifestyle. And I hadn't done anything else. I hadn't, you know, I hadn't even gone to you know, normal school. We did government curriculum through correspondence and had a proper teacher and all that, but hadn't had the normal experience of going to you know public school and those sort of experiences. So it was it was a bit daunting. But you know, had the conversation and they were very sad, I think we're saying, my mum and dad. But yeah, they knew it was what I wanted to do. So I left in 2018 and w we were in Sydney at the time. We just finished had a contract uh for the Sydney Roll show. So it was kind of cool because my last performance, I guess, was doing the flying trapeze in um what's GWS's home stadium there? Oh NG is the NGO where the showgrounds are in Sydney. Is it Ramwick? No. No, it's uh maybe it used to be in Ramwick. Uh yeah, I think it's GS. No, I don't know. It's where the it's where the role show is anyway. It's that big footy ground there. So that was cool. Get to perform in front of like thousands of people and be up on the big screen and stuff. Yeah, that's cool. For the last sort of last performance, and then from there drove all the way back to to Perth and started a new life with my girlfriend at the time, now my wife. So nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so was Perth I know you you you guys have been in WA for a while and done a lot of um lot of shows. You obviously traveled around. Did Perth feel like home mostly? Yes. Yep. 100%.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. But we got to Perth when I think I was 13, 2005. We got to Perth and uh we also like started playing cricket. We played cricket, me and my brother, we played cricket for South Perth, and that got us more sort of in the community in in Perth and got to make a lot of friends through through cricket. And it was like the one thing we did that was somewhat normal, you know, which which I loved and um played cricket for a few years, played a couple years of senior cricket, but mostly juniors. And um Perth Yeah, so Perth has always felt like felt like home. And when I was when we went over to Sydney to to sort of do a tour over there or the East Coast, I was like, I just want to come back home.
SPEAKER_04Well, I do feel like um I mean, you you know, some police officers are effectively doing acrobatics um on the job. Uh basically springing from one thing to the next. Uh but um I don't know where I'm going with this terrible analogy other than to other than to say this is just fascinating. Um did you did you like was it the first choice for you? Like I want to go and be a police officer. What was that that attracted you to the job?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so once I'd come back to Perth, I was doing a bit of teaching like circus skills, like kids' classes and stuff, and then ended up getting a job um working at a at a bar, like a uh restaurant bar down Riverton Bar and Grill. Shout out. Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I went there not long ago, actually. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09Steak was good. Yeah. So I worked there for like a year and a half, but there's no endorsement by the way.
SPEAKER_03Work with public service. Yeah. Riverton Bar and Grill does not spot this podcast.
SPEAKER_09But that was kind of a cool experience for me, at least, because it was like I was working for someone that wasn't family for the first time. And then so that was I thought it was really cool. And then uh I I trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as well and have for a long time, for like 11 years now. And at that time, around 2018, there's a bunch of police officers that I trained with and became friends with, and you know, and I just got chatting to them basically, you know, what's the job like? And and they would give me proper answers about what it's really like, and I it just sort of fested in my mind, and more I thought about, yeah, I want to do it, and they were like, Yeah, you should go for it. So I applied in to 2018, didn't get in, and then a year later I applied again and got in.
SPEAKER_04Nice, awesome.
SPEAKER_05That's so cool. That is so incredible. Yeah, is it fair to say you're really good at identifying the ringleader in certain I have pretty good facial, like facial.
SPEAKER_09Um, I do back myself in to recognize people, but that's good, that's good, that's good.
SPEAKER_04Uh and there are look there's just some synergies, some common factors, you know. Both of them are a little bit dangerous, just you know, um, pretty rewarding. Yeah. Um, highly visible in the public.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that was that's funny because that's one of the things I wanted to get away from. I don't want to be in front of a crowd anymore, I don't want to be looked at, and then you put the uniform on everywhere you go, everyone just like looking at you. That's that's incredible.
SPEAKER_04Um okay, I have a confession, mate. I actually did kind of join a circus once. Really? Which one? Your circus. Really? Yep. In 2011. 2011. I was a young-ish, well younger reporter working for the West Australian, and I came and actually like spent I can't remember how like a week or something with your circus, and I interviewed you.
SPEAKER_09Really?
SPEAKER_04I did.
SPEAKER_09What town were we at?
SPEAKER_04Mandra. I want to say it was Mandra. Yeah, yeah. I love Mandra. The jewel of the the South. Yep. Um, yeah. Uh and yeah, it was it was fascinating. And your dad, Joseph, I want to say, um housed me in the caravan with one of the clowns. Right. Which one? I don't know, but he talked a lot. Right. And he he didn't sleep a lot. Maybe it was nice guy. Yeah. I was a little bit freaked out, but he's a nice guy.
SPEAKER_03Joey's secret clown fear.
SPEAKER_09I'm not a clown hater, isn't he?
SPEAKER_03Just a nice guy.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. Oh, I yeah, Mandra, I liked Mandra because we would at that time time used to like skateboarding and the lights would be on at the skate park till like 10 o'clock at night. And we'd because the circus was right there, I just walk over and skate until like the lights went out.
SPEAKER_04I gotta say, I mean, for anybody who hasn't seen um, you know, the the Ashton Circus family circus, I mean, it was it was something else. Like, and you and your brother and your dad, um, like in terms of acrobatic trapeze, the performance was sensational. And I remember you guys watched you know practicing and how hard you were practicing um even when nobody was there before the show. Your dad and the wheel of death. I had to go in the wheel of death, yeah. Very slowly. Yeah, and um that thing is scary. Yeah. Uh how would you describe it for people who've never seen it?
SPEAKER_09It's like a hamster wheel, kind of. It's like a giant hamster wheel. Pretty sure that is, but I think he just comes at the at the end and does one trick because that's all his body can take anymore.
SPEAKER_04I I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, uh look it it was it was really fascinating. Interesting though, I think that it was a family circus and I don't know, policing does feel a bit like a a big family.
SPEAKER_09Well a team like a a team you're on is a big part of policing, I feel like. You know, some spots can be tough, but if you're on a good team, it doesn't matter, you know. It's all about the thing.
SPEAKER_04And now if I'm there's there's also another little historical tie-in, which I I don't know if he actually was with the Ashton Brothers Circus, but but Ned Kelly's uh half brother, so Ned Kelly being the Bush Ranger from Victoria, his half-brother, Jack Kelly, was also much like your ancestor, um, a fantastic horseman. And uh and he w was a circus entertainer, but he ended up joining the West Australian police force. Yep. Specifically, they brought him in to to train our mounted section. Um and then he he ended up um post-policing career, went back into the circus world and um there's the guy who's really famous over in the States, the biggest show on earth. I can't remember. Uh PT Barnum. Yep, he went and worked with P. T. Barnum. Yeah. Yeah. Remember Brothers. Yeah. So look, um you never know. It could be a circus comeback. Maybe. Who knows? Yeah. I don't know.
SPEAKER_09I doubt it, but I my grandfather used to tell me a story um that the Kelly gang at one point came and they couldn't watch the show in the actual like where people were sitting because you know it scared the life out of everyone. But they snuck around the back and they lifted up the cyborg and they watched like part of the show, the Kelly gang. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what Grandpa used to do. Pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_04Um I'm s I yeah, I guess I mean you'd you would you'd probably have to arrest them now, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. I guess. Um look, I guess the last thing I ask, uh given you know you you you have been a police officer for a while now, um would it be something that you'd recommend to people?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, absolutely. I think it it's you know, you learn so many different skills doing this job. Um and you know, even if you decide not to do it as a career your whole life, you are gonna learn things that you can take on take with you know for the rest of your life. Um it's super rewarding. But you know, when you go to jobs and you can actually help other people, and it's it's not you know, we try to every job, but but you know, when you actually do you know get someone's motorbike back, for example, which is get their property back and you they just light up that that is awesome. You know, that's what we're doing for.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, awesome. Um Maya, any sort of youthful commentary?
SPEAKER_10I mean, it sounds like you've lived multiple lives in the one life. So I think it really shows that you can kind of go anywhere that you choose.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and it's good, you bring that experience to policing, you know. I mean, good with people, good with clowns, as we said.
SPEAKER_05Um he's good he's good at juggling his time too. Yeah, I used to juggle, I hated juggling.
SPEAKER_09Hated it. As soon as we got someone else that I could half juggle, I said to dad, no, no more, get that guy to do it. I'm not doing it. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04What what a cool story. And uh I reckon we've only yeah, this is only the beginning. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Um, thanks so much for coming on, mate. We really appreciate it, and um, it's nice to see you again.
SPEAKER_09Well, you too.
SPEAKER_05And if you're uh interested in joining the WA police force, visit Let's Join Forces. Yes.
SPEAKER_10Um this is confidential.
SPEAKER_00All units. The WA police forces are looking for people, all kinds of people, people in the tank in the community and into four-wheel driving, dumb people, and horse people, people who like motor bikes, push bikes, planes, helicopters, and buddies, people who are big on community, helping others and solving true crime, not just watching it. Ordinary people who are up for doing the control ordinary things.
SPEAKER_01If you can be one of these people, you've found your people. Search, let's join forces.
SPEAKER_05You're listening to WA Police Confidential. When it comes to road safety, we don't play games. Using your phone while driving can cost you more than just demerit points. It also comes with significant financial penalties, and more importantly, it put lives at risk. Yeah. Distracted driving is one of the fatal five behaviors targeted by road policing officers across WA.
SPEAKER_04Road policing officers like Don Justin, first class constable.
SPEAKER_05From the Road Policing Motorcycle section. Don, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_07Good morning. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_05You had an interesting traffic stop recently involving a driver allegedly using their phone while behind the wheel. Tell us what happened.
SPEAKER_04Well, actually, before we go to Don's, can we just I kind of want to play the the body worn camera? Um body worn camera or the dash cam. Well, we've got a helmet monitor. Yep. Um, okay, have a listen to this.
SPEAKER_06Do you know what Minecraft is? Yeah, my six-year-old plays it, but this guy plays it on Tonkin Highwa.
SPEAKER_04Hey Don, so um what were you thinking when you saw this bloke driving at geese excessive speed, I guess?
SPEAKER_07I mean, it's something that we see way too often and way too common, unfortunately. Um people watching YouTube, people doing online shopping, doing their weekly grocery shopping.
SPEAKER_04Online shopping? Yeah. I can't do that even when I'm sitting stationary.
SPEAKER_07I suck at that. Well, I think people have their priorities a bit wrong, but certainly when it comes to playing Minecraft in a live environment, that certainly takes the cake. So fortunately, we've got the advantage being able to get pretty close to cars and observe them without them particularly noticing us. So on this one, I, as the body worn footage would show I took a couple of seconds to just get my head around what's actually going on in the car. And the closer I got, the closer it became evident that it wasn't just a YouTube video. The the driver was actually interacting with the with his mobile device. So um, yeah, we were doing about a hundred kilometers an hour, which is the speed limit on Tonkin High.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so not excessive speed, but still, that's a it's a very swerving.
SPEAKER_07Oh, he was swerving. The swerving was was what gave it away uh from quite a distance. And on that particular morning, our focus was actually on speeding offences. However, this is one of those things you just you've got to stop that driver before he goes down the road and actually ends up seriously injuring or killing someone. So once I'd uh satisfied myself that I wasn't asleep and I wasn't seeing things and I wasn't dreaming, a decision was made to stop the gentleman, um which took a while, it was quite busy, a lot of traffic, we're approaching a very large intersection as well. Um and yeah, you're just kind of lost for words.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_07So we eventually made a decision to stop in a bit of a safer place, which took a bit because I didn't want to stop on Tonkin Highway. Although I've now hopefully prevented one person from playing Minecraft. Unfortunately, I don't know if other traffic coming up from behind is actually paying attention to the flow traffic. So we headed towards Forest Field onto Little Side Road, and I informed a gentleman not to touch his phone before I approached the car. And as I walked up, it's uh one of them instances where a picture speaks for a thousand words. So I took a photograph of what he was doing and briefly spoke to him. But yeah, I do know that Minecraft is apparently a really common game for teenagers, five-year-olds, six-year-olds. I often hear the word thrown around that I can't get my kid to do anything when he's playing that game. However, Tonkin Highway at the morning time, 5 30 or something, I think, from memory, um, is really not the place to be playing that game.
SPEAKER_04No, no, it's definitely not. Now, uh I have some questions. Number one, you said your six-year-old? Six year old five year old, six year old?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there's yeah. Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_04Yep, yep. Um, would you having seen your five-year-old, six-year-old's Minecraft um efforts, did this driver were they were they up to spec, or I mean, were they kind of not only a bad driver but bad at Minecraft?
SPEAKER_07Unfortunately, I can't issue infringements for people's level of competence when it gets to playing games. Yeah. However, I do see a lot of young kids using mobile phones, and I can assure you they're better than myself, yeah, or that driver in particular, yeah. Yeah. To pass any level of these sort of games.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But um, look, and let's be serious, it's very dangerous. Not only not only for um yeah, for for himself, but obviously other drivers on the road. Um, and um I mean I just want to just quickly pause and just say Meyer. What is Minecraft for those who don't know, like myself, who've never played it.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, so Minecraft is uh a game that you play where you it's predominantly a block-based game. You build houses, you can build farms, you can go mining, which is part of the name. Drive cars. You cannot drive cars yet, so you can ride a horse, um, but yeah, there's no mobile use and uh in the game at least.
SPEAKER_05Okay. All right. I think maybe he he'll need to be changing the name from Minecraft to Finecraft because he was penalized quite heavily, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_07It's one of them offences that um yes, we do give out infringements, however, we've got great backing from our management that at the end of the day our ultimate goal is to change driver behaviour. And we're very independent as to the sanctions that we issue. If we find that an offence doesn't quite seem worthy of an infringement, as long as we can talk to the person, give them a caution, and ensure ourselves that they've understood what they were doing wasn't ideal to change their driving behavior, then yes, we can issue a caution and we won't get scrutinized for that. Then use a mobile phone is one of them infringements that we draw the line. There's no such thing as a valid or reasonable excuse for using a mobile phone, um, which is where your $500 three demerit uh infringement comes from. Luckily, the uh uh infringements have recently been updated a couple of years ago. Uh, there's another offence called Aggravate Juice a mobile phone, which Minecraft playing certainly falls into. It's a very steep penalty, it's $1,000 and four demers. Uh and hopefully, once he receives that lovely letter in the mail, that will change his driving behavior from then on in.
SPEAKER_04Um, my final question for me is did you at any point in time were you tempted to say game over?
SPEAKER_07Um I think if we review my body worn, I remember saying something down the line of you might not be winning any games. However, on this occasion you've won an infringement. We're $1,000 and four demers. Uh, but that more or less has to do with yeah, just uh the the offences we've seen this week. I mean, we we had a pretty busy week. We've had two operations. That one was uh targeted operations for speeders on the morning to influence the general public's driving behavior, and a very short space of time we've managed to unfortunately stop 113 uh people who are allegedly speeding in a very short space of time, and one of my colleagues stopped a gentleman doing 104 kilometers an hour in a 50 zone. Whoa! So that's the sort of behaviour we are trying to detect. Um, and then just as a general unit, fortunately, I work with a lot of guys that are quite passionate about the job itself. Um, we've done a recent operation in Northbridge targeting the entertainment precinct, and again, very short period of time, managed to breath test 218 drivers, and unfortunately, out of that 18 people provided uh positive preliminary breath test and 16 charges.
SPEAKER_05That's unacceptable, isn't it?
SPEAKER_07Nine drivers were over XS08, six of them were over XS05, a DUI offense, a couple of no authority to drives. Um, so at the end of the day, every one of them drivers after orders potentially crash, prevent it.
SPEAKER_05Not only that, you know, you've got those, you said an a cup a a good cohort of 08s and a DUI. Surely you're at a point where you think I'm not fit enough to drive when you're blowing those kind of numbers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean You're not just over, you are over. And and I guess it's that thing of um, you know, we talk about you know, the good work that road policing does out there all the time catching people out. But there has to be some level of personal responsibility. Um people you you can't you know, driving under the influence, driving playing Minecraft, driving playing Minecraft under the influence, whatever it might be. I mean, this is dumb stuff, really dumb stuff. It's laughable. It is laughable and we do laugh at it, but you know, it then suddenly it gets really serious when when somebody, you know, loses a limb, loses an eye, or loses their life.
SPEAKER_07I mean, at the end of the day, in fairness to the general population of motorists in WA, uh the overwhelming majority of drivers do the right thing. We are out to target the people who choose not to. And we can go home at the end of the day and believe that every impaired driver we've removed from the road is potentially crash prevented. So if you're deciding to drive distracted, uh impaired driving, speeding at the end of the day you're gambling with lives. You're not just gambling with a license. If we come along and charge you for an offence, that's your licence gone. If you decide to take any of these risks and end up in a serious crash somewhere, that's potentially your life gone. And that just doesn't affect that single person. Every roll crash involves a lot more people than that.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think um it's a good place to finish this one up. Um these guys aren't playing. You've been you've been warned. Thank you very much for for your service. I really appreciate what you guys do out there. I know you do it in the heat, you do it in the rain, uh, and you're out there doing it every day all the time. I appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05This is WA Police Confidential.
SPEAKER_04This is confidential. Um, it's that time of the week again, and I can tell from her face that this is definitely not good news with Claire Sienta.
SPEAKER_08No, i yeah, three pretty um confronting stories, I think you would say. Some sad ones. Yeah, some really sad ones. Um, so you may have heard this week the commissioner of police, Cole Blanche, he met with um Amy Wensley's family. So uh you may know a little bit about the story, but back in 2014, um she unfortunately died from as a result of a gunshot wound um in her serpentine home on back on the 26th of June in 2014. So um the commissioner met with Amy's family um and acknowledged there were some shortcomings in the big shortcomings in the initial investigation, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Correct.
SPEAKER_08And and he actually apologised to her family.
SPEAKER_04Um and you know, it it he he made a real point of of saying that um that you know the grief that Amy's mother in particular and why the family have been carrying all of these years has been very much compounded by the fact that as the WA coroner um pointed out, the West Australian police force at that time um there was a um a uh uh some detectives um who responded, um the scene was was cleaned up very quickly, would never happen today. Um forensics weren't preserved, and so subsequently, um, you know, the coroner even in the coronial inquest wasn't able to determine if it was a homicide or if it was um a self-harm uh type incident. However, one of the things that I know the commissioner's been really big on and certainly spoke with Amy's mother about is that you know, because this is um an unknown cause of death, that we we are treating it very, very seriously. We are throwing all of our resources at it. You may have seen, in fact, some um advertising uh um about Amy Wensley uh in certain suburbs of Perth and asking you to come forward. And if you do know something, there is one million dollars, a one million dollar reward on offer if you can help us crack this case and and bring closure to Amy's family.
SPEAKER_08And it was noted too, Amy's family have shown some pretty extraordinary determination um in seeking justice for Amy. So um, you know, we as a WA police force remain committed to that investigation, as you mentioned.
SPEAKER_04So absolutely. So if you know something, please get in touch. Call Crime Stoppers call us.
SPEAKER_08And in some other news, um, WA police force uh is aware of an incident where some email an email was sent um to a group of firearm license holders and it inadvertent inadvertently disclosed those email addresses to that group. So um, yeah, that disclosure was the result of human error um and wasn't caused by systems failure or any sort of cybersecurity incident or anything, but um definitely reviewing the circumstances into that and um yeah, apologize or well, I think the commission has has apologized publicly for that one.
SPEAKER_04Um and really, if you in layman's terms, it's um I always get this wrong, but so if you CC someone into an email, I think it stands for carbon copy from the old days, and BCC stands for blind carbon copy. So you could send, say, you know, an email um to multiple people CC'd, and and um they unfortunately will see everybody else's email, and that's what's happened in this this instance. It should have been a BCC. Uh so subsequently, uh about sort of between four and five hundred people who are firearms license holders in in what WA now have each other's email addresses. Um, you know, it's not not great. Commissioner has apologised, but you know, this is the thing with the new firearms portal is actually we'll remove that sort of human error because that is not how people will be contacted going forwards. So kind of a good thing um that we're now so close to um finishing that whole transition onto this new digital platform.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and so close to it. But yeah, obviously the force acknowledges um the concern that this incident may have have caused to those affected and um regrets the error.
SPEAKER_03So Yep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And finally, detectives from the sex assault squad um have actually charged a 35-year-old man in relation to an alleged confronting incident that occurred in Claremont on the 15th of August. So about 1:30, a female victim aged in her 70s. She was inside a residence when she was disturbed by a man who gained entry to the property. So it will be further alleged that victim was um sexually assaulted. So yeah, very confronting um set of allegations. And um police were quickly called to the scene and and apprehended uh that 35-year-old man from Claremont um and charged him with some pretty pretty serious offences.
SPEAKER_04Look, I mean, um, yeah, obviously before the courts, but um good that uh somebody um uh is um in custody and and in the belief is that there is no further risk to the community at this time. Uh Claire, thank you so much for joining us again. Hopefully better news next week.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I'll try and look for some good news stories next week, Joey.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Claire. This is confidential.
SPEAKER_05Too long or whatever. You're listening to W8 Police Confidential. Joey, Maya, let's say you've broken down on the Quinana freeway. You've pulled over as safely as you can, your hazard lights are on, and you've called a tow truck or roadside assistance and you're waiting for help. Then another vehicle pulls up behind you. It has markings on it, got flashing amber lights. The person gets out wearing a uniform and offers to stay with you until help arrives. They might say they're insured, they might say they have an ABN, they might say that they're qualified, they might even say that they're operating under good Samaritan laws. And in that moment, when you're already stressed and you're sitting there beside fast-moving traffic, that might feel reassuring, right? The question is, are they actually authorized to manage traffic? To stop vehicles, to close a lane, or insert themselves into an incident scene?
SPEAKER_04It's a brave person who gets out and tries to direct traffic on the cornana freeway. Jeez Louise! Well wait, let's can we can we can we change our scenario just so it for my mind and our and the listeners to a slightly less less busy road? Yeah, sure. Okay, so it's now Riverside Drive.
SPEAKER_10At twelve o'clock.
SPEAKER_04At twelve o'clock, thank you. Yeah. Okay. Now, so he's a gotten out, he's doing this. What well are there people like this? Like uh are there what is the law around this?
SPEAKER_05You you can't be doing it. Essentially, you can't be doing it.
SPEAKER_04You cannot be doing that.
SPEAKER_05There are uh uh certain things in place to protect the community. For example, main roads have a dedicated incident response service. Certain individuals have been uh going and attending scenes uh and offering to uh partially block lanes of traffic to to set up their vehicle in a manner that would um you know seem like they've got like the authority to do so.
SPEAKER_04Correct, which but why are they doing it though? So if this is happening, are they doing it for financial gain? Is it just so the the For the greater good of the community?
SPEAKER_05That's what they say. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So they're trying, let's say we believe that and they're trying to help. But what are the risks? And this I mean this for generally speaking. If anybody sees a car accident and and they can see that there's traffic chaos and police, tow trucks, main roads are yet to arrive at the scene, could they, should they, direct traffic?
SPEAKER_05Look, our our our response to that would be no. Don't put yourself in a situation where you're gonna potentially be injured. You might you're not trained uh in in relation to directing traffic. Um so if you make the wrong call and a driver follows that call, they might believe that you ha you are in a position of authority to do so, and something happens, uh, yeah, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.
SPEAKER_04Could you be liable? Like so say if you were directed someone to let's say break a traffic law or do or you know, drive on the on the wrong side of the road to get around a crash, somebody else hits them head on. Are you somehow potentially in the mix there?
SPEAKER_05I would I would argue definitely.
SPEAKER_04Okay, all right. So back to your your example Riverside Drive at 12 o'clock, uh vehicle markings. So y there are people in the community here in Perth who they're kind of like road traffic vigilantes.
SPEAKER_05Essentially, you could call it that. Yeah, we've we've seen people who fitted amber lights to their vehicles. They've got some signage, they're wearing a a high vis uniform and they're carrying uh all the equipment that you may see uh the main roads carry and responding to incidents. What I can say is that main roads have actually specifically named one individual on their website that does not support the actions uh of what they are doing.
SPEAKER_10Does this cause like an interference for police officers as well or any emergency services who might actually have to be attending these scenes?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, definitely. I think you know, a chaotic scene, uh having someone insert themselves into the middle of that scene causes further confusion. Uh it it yeah, it who who who are people meant to follow? And the answer to that is the the authorities, the police, the fireys, or the ambos, uh, or the main road stuff, but certainly not a private citizen who's decided to uh attend a scene on their own volition uh and then um commenced uh their own operation to to direct direct traffic.
SPEAKER_04Jesus. Um be doing better things than that, I would have thought. Um playing Minecraft, not while driving, but playing Minecraft. Uh yeah, that's crazy. I I look, I've only got one directing traffic story, and it's um sort of a mate of a mate who I knew who um I think it was sort of a levers type scenario, jumped in front of a car and sang the song Um Stop in the Name of Love. He ended up with two broken legs. Yep. Uh look, there's a few lessons here to take away. Maybe just wait, call the police, call main roads, leave it to the professionals. And uh, if you are somebody who is a road traffic vigilante, well, this is this is to you. It's called stop in the name of love by WA police photograph.
SPEAKER_10This is confidential. Welcome back, everyone.
SPEAKER_04Um Welcome back to the ending.
SPEAKER_10And the ending.
SPEAKER_04The outro.
SPEAKER_10The beginning of the end.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_10Uh we spoke to Jordan. I think we all kind of was amazed by his so cool incredible skills, his backstory, everything like that. It was pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think um, I think it just goes to show, you know, regardless of what your career might have been before, there's yeah, there are applicable skills. You can take those deaf-tifying skills to another deaf-tifying job and work with clowns. Don't say that. I mean, you might deal with clowns, but not about that's what I meant. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh, uh definitely, definitely a bit of a tightrope. Yeah. That we're we're walking right now.
SPEAKER_10Now, last week we uh hinted on our history fact for this week being about clothes. Nate, what was what what clothing item do we have today? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Okay, there's a bit of a story here, so bear with me. Just the history fact, yeah. Yep. The history fact is that we place a lot of value in the police uniform. And uh, you know, did you know there used to be a black market in selling the fabric?
SPEAKER_04No, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_05There you go. Okay, well, back in the late 19th century, quality clothing and fabric was not so easy to come by in WA. Official police uniforms were made from tweed, imported specifically from Britain. Sorry, what? Tweed. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03Tweed, yeah. Very Sherlock Holmes, isn't it?
SPEAKER_05And that tweed uh was highly prized for its durability against the West Australian elements. It would have been pretty hot.
SPEAKER_10It would have been so hot. And think about having to ride ride a bicycle around in your tweed.
SPEAKER_05How would you launder your tweed? I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, look, after a spade of thefts from government police stores in 1882, two men went on trial in the Supreme Court. Uh, and the governor of the day ordered a commission of inquiry. So they're getting really heavily invested into the tweet theft. So Superintendent Matt Skinner Smith uh was the equivalent of the police commission of the day, and he took the inquiry very seriously. I feel this is a crime against fashion.
SPEAKER_10Um tweed.
SPEAKER_05Crimes against fashion. No names.
SPEAKER_03Bring the tweed, bring back the tweed.
SPEAKER_05Go on. No names, no pack drill. But the upshot was that the officer in charge of the police stores was found guilty of gross carelessness and neglect of duty. Wow. Plot twist. He was demoted, and the governor appointed a government storekeeper to ensure that no such irregularities on the part of the police can occur again. Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_13It's wild.
SPEAKER_05It gets better. It does. The good news for police, though, was that this led to improvements in uniforms. So no more tweed.
SPEAKER_10What do you mean?
SPEAKER_05I don't think polyester was invented back then. So up until then, police officers were mostly expected to cover the cost of their own uniforms. But from 1884, the uniforms become st became standardized and free for all officers. Detectives also had a win, and they were given an annual clothing allowance instead of free uniforms. So if they wanted to buy tweed, they probably could. They probably could buy a tweed suit. And that is the end of that history pack. That is wild.
SPEAKER_10Next week, what have what have we got coming for this week? Tweed clothing related.
SPEAKER_04Come on.
SPEAKER_05No, uh, we're going back to 1841 to look at the first big case for our first per paid police officers. It involved getting guards drunk to steal a caseful of silver coins belonging to the Queen.
SPEAKER_04That sounds amazing. Yeah. Not as amazing as the tweed, but it's pretty good.
SPEAKER_10No. Wait, police officers weren't paid. Before this?
SPEAKER_04Are you saying that early police officers were like volunteers? Road road uh road policing uh vigilarities, like potentially.
SPEAKER_10And they had to pay for their own tweed uniform?
SPEAKER_05You'll have to tune in next week and find out. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Um did you have a quiz for us, Maya?
SPEAKER_10I did. So, based off our Minecraft chat earlier, how irresponsible it was to drive in a car while playing Minecraft. Very um, pull over to the side, have a little game, gaming session, then get back on the road, whatever your poison is. I thought I would test your guys' knowledge on um some Minecraft.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. I've never played it before. I know likewise, I have no idea. Okay, we're ready.
SPEAKER_10That's why I think it would be even better.
SPEAKER_05We're ready.
SPEAKER_10So, what is the default character skin for new players in Minecraft? He has a name. It is a male.
SPEAKER_05Any hints or are we going straight into it?
SPEAKER_02Jerry Rocco.
SPEAKER_10Neither of you correct.
SPEAKER_11It's Steve Steve.
SPEAKER_03I feel like I was close because it was like so mundane.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, it was very boring name. Okay, cool. What is the name of the dimension that is accessed by building a portal with obsidian?
SPEAKER_02What? The devil? Tweed, the tweed dimension. Mindscape.
SPEAKER_10It is the nether.
SPEAKER_02And finally a nether would have guessed that. No, I never would have guessed that.
SPEAKER_11Alright, finally. What item can be used to tame wolves?
SPEAKER_02A whistle. A shovel. An axe.
SPEAKER_11Is bones.
SPEAKER_02Bones.
SPEAKER_10Bones. When you um kill skeletons in the game, they drop bones and you can use them to tame wolves, which turn into dogs.
SPEAKER_04I can't believe I didn't get that. I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_05That was equally as confusing as doing the census.
SPEAKER_03How many skeletons are living in your household? Join us next week. Uh this is confidential. Thanks very much to WA Please Part for stop in the name of the love.
SPEAKER_08Sound editing by Joe and Danny and Sam. Cover song by the WA Police Pipe Band, and Cheesy Podcast theme music by Joey Canzaro. By the way, why just listen to a podcast about policing when you could actually be doing it? Let's join forces.wa.gov.au.
