Northam Police Station has welcomed two new constables into the wheatbelt force.
Kristen Tobiassen and Nicole West have both transferred from the city to the country in the past month.
Kristen had been working at Gosnells Police Station and the South East Metro for the past year and said she was looking forward to the change of environment.
“I have always wanted to do country policing,” she said. “Northam is the country but is not too far away from Perth, so it really is the best of both worlds.”
Bakers Hill resident Nicole had been working at Midland Police Station.
When a position became vacant in Northam she pounced on the opportunity.
“A job came up at Northam and I spoke to senior sergeant Dickson, he showed me around and I just fell in love with everyone,” she said. “They were all really inviting – it just made it that little bit easier to apply and when I got the job it was awesome because I was going into a good team.”
Both girls studied at ECU Joondalup, with Kristen doing a Bachelor of Communications and Nicole completing a Bachelor of Business and currently finishing her Bachelor of Laws.
Both girls have policing in their blood. Nicole’s dad transitioned from the army to policing in Zimbabwe and her uncle was an officer in Germany.
Kristen’s grandfather and brother are police officers and her dad is a prison officer. Growing up hearing first-hand accounts of the work interested both of them.
“I always wanted to do it but my parents said no, you’re a girl and you’re going to get hurt,” Kristen said.
Her parents ended up coming around after realising her passion for the role. “They are really proud of me and think it's a great job,” she said.
Nicole welcomed the idea of more females going into the force. “It is about changing all stereotypes and breaking that barrier between good people, bad people...we are all at the end of the day just people.”
Nicole said roughly a third of each squad going through the academy were females and represented 12 of the 38 staff in Northam.
Senior sergeant Geoff Dickson said the police force was becoming more diverse in terms of gender balance.
“When I came here in the 1990s, there were two female employees,” he said.
“Times are changing and we are becoming a lot more diverse in terms of our makeup.
“It is an exciting time and it is good to have keen officers coming up into the bush and joining the team.”
