South Australia Police
See yourself in the uniform recruitment campaign
Police officer testimonial - Shane
This page is a transcript of the video testimonial of Shane, a police officer with South Australia Police. Shane joined SAPOL after working with wildlife and the Army Reserves in the Northern Territory.
[Close up vision of Shane progressively putting the finishing touches on his uniform, starting with putting his dark blue police shirt on over his t-shirt then doing up the top buttons of his police shirt and zipping up his shoes]
I come from a fairly strong family background of
Scottish heritage and Aboriginal heritage. I worked in several different parks
throughout the Territory.
After the parks and wildlife I got into
[Shane, in casual clothes, talking to camera in a studio]
Army Reserves. When I arrived in South Australia
[Vision of Shane on the job as a police officer, leaving the police station with a colleague and getting into a police car]
I got into social work with Aboriginal prisoners and offenders support service.
The police force appealed to me, a job came up in the city.
[Shane, in casual clothes, talking to camera in a studio]
I put my hand up for it. I've come in as a Community Constable
doing the try before you buy thing.
[Vision of Shane on the job as a police officer, taking notes at a briefing and interacting with colleagues]
The learning of the cadet program,
it just equips you for different situations that you’re going to be faced with.
[Shane, in casual clothes, talking to camera in a studio]
My first week on the job I go into the park lands and three people approach me:
“G’day brother how are you?” One of them pulls me aside and says
“She wants to talk to you. She was raped last night”.
Being fresh out of the Academy a thousand things running through my head,
it just comes all back to you.
And your confidence, your training, your life skills, your life
experiences all wrapped into one. I just knew what to do. I understand both
[Vision of Shane on the job as a police officer, interacting with indigenous community members in a public park]
Indigenous community and non- Indigenous community, I can mix with both.
Where I see myself is as a mediator between
Aboriginal people and policing to educate both
[Shane, in casual clothes, talking to camera in a studio]
in closing that gap. My colleagues
[Close up vision of Shane in uniform putting his accoutrement belt on and sliding his notebook into the zip pocket of his trousers]
support me, I support them. We stick together.
You may be different coloured skinned but
[Shane takes his police hat from under his arm and puts it on his head showing the police badge to camera for a close up]
once you’ve got the uniform on, once you’ve got the blue skin on:
you’re all one colour.
This is where I will be for quite some time. Best job in the world.
[Still shot of Shane in uniform looking into camera and two strips of thin yellow tape appearing on the screen with words See yourself in the uniform and achievemore.com.au]
[Shane’s still shot fades to a dark background with police lights appearing behind the yellow tape. The South Australia Police logo and the Government of South Australia logo appears]
[Male voice over]
Do you already have what it takes? See yourself in the uniform