I want to become a fisheries officer, I was thinking of doing the police training program to give me a better chance at the position as well as doing aquaculture. What is it like joining the program as a trans man? Do you think I would get made fun of? I'm currently 17 and on t and I'm looking at joining next year when I'm just over 18 and finish school so hopefully I will pass more as I will then be two years on t.
That's nice.
Here's some interesting quotes from a (pre print) research piece regarding trans police in Australia.
"Almost all recruits stating that they would prefer to work with cisgender officers."
"Transgender people entering policing may fear negative stereotypes and associated behaviour expectations regarding being labelled as transgender and consequently having to (or being pressured to) accept police roles/jobs/tasks that relate specifically to their transgender identity. ...Many cisgender female police officers and police officers identifying as minority group members have been set apart from other police officers and given roles that uphold their ‘difference’ such as a police liaison officer role, which requires officers to interface with members of the public from the same identity group ...When forced into a liaison officer role, female police officers and police officers identifying as minority group members take on a specific identity (setting them aside from mainstream policing roles), which in turn upholds identity differences between majority and minority group police officers... When an officer is labelled as a member of a particular group or is identified as an officer with a particular characteristic or identifier this may serve to increase isolation between the officer and colleagues (Cherney and Chui 2010). For example, if a labelled officer occupies a quasi-police role that is directly connected to the label (such as a gay police officer who works as a LGBTIQ+ police liaison officer), this may further isolate the officer from other colleagues."
"Professions such as policing with strict gender binary behavioural codes, practices, and normative assumptions about men and women, may make it difficult for transgender people whose transgender identity is visible"
"Panter (2018), and Sears, Hasenbush and Mallory (2013) argue that transgender officers frequently report poor treatment from cisgender officers and negative experiences within police organisations than cisgender officers, and discrimination and transphobia enacted towards transgender officers is pervasive within the policing profession."
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/134086/2/134086.pdf
This is also interesting: https://theconversation.com/from-strip-searches-to-sexual-harassment-australian-policing-has-long-been-plagued-by-sexism-256781
Anyway, OP, here's the deal. The police are, as an organisation, inherently racist, sexist, queerphobic, and transphobic. Individual cops are fine but organisationally, they're fucked.
You'll be on the inside so as long as you don't rock the boat or anything, you'll probably be fine. They may or may not respect your gender or just decide you're a weird butch dyke with pronouns. Complaining about that probably won't help. There's training about appropriate language and things so, transphobia, like racism and sexism, will be quiet and hidden. You won't exactly be encouraged to speak up about it. That's rocking the boat.
Have a good read of the Yoorook papers. Read this https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2565/ And this https://antar.org.au/issues/racism/policing/ And the Royal Commission into deaths in custody
i'd much rather deal with a transgender cop then a regular 'on the beat' cop. I don't disagree with you at all mind you.
I've dealt with the police many times in my life and nearly everytime they're either hostile or want to entrap you to fill their quotas. Even being near them freaks me out, hell having friends in Melbourne recently tell me they can just stop search you whenever would have my cooker arse pleading the 5th and refusing any sort of search.
This extends to cis people mind you.
The hard reality though is pigs will always be in the pen, they'll never receive proper training on how to handle us. Hell they can't even figure out how to deal with the general population who're probably extremely traumatised (sometimes from police themselves) or ND people.
Worse is police officers themselves who're obviously traumatised and genuinely shouldn't be working.
And whilst the old adage of 'Police are not your friend' is very real. I'd rather have cops understand the community when they freak out due to how poorly they treat us even today.
This. Everything you've said.
You can do what you want, but my advice is to be aware of the rough history between trans and queer people and the police force. I don't think that being transgender will be a barrier to enrolment.
Also, OP, please remember that the police protect their own, which includes protecting their own against internal complaints.
So, anything happens that you don't like, and you complain, you'll probably end up being the one in the shit. Not the other guy.
I do not want to become a cop, i want to work with fisheries and the marine officers but just do the police training to have a better change at the job!!!!! I want to be a fisheries officer/marine officer but I might end up just doing aquaculture instaid of police training to become a marine officer
I actually don't think police training will be the help you think it will be.
1) TALK TO THEM and ask their opinions about what prior education you need.
1b)The key is that West Australia doesn't have mandatory minimums, so will get shit loads of wildly unqualified people applying because the starting salary is decent. You really need to talk to them - the nice thing about government is that people are generally pretty helpful, especially regarding questions like "how do I stand out" and then consider making a venn diagram of required quality from the other states and getting one of those.
1c) DON'T DO POLICE TRAINING. You're not applying to be a fish cop. That training would probably be a black mark, because now we're constantly wondering if you think you're fish cop. And .... you're not. You're a regulatory and compliance officer.
2) so, vic (have a lot of issues and job cuts) but are helpfully explicit about training:
https://vfa.vic.gov.au/enforcement/featured/fisheries-officer-career-victoria
So are SA: https://pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/468088/sa-fisheries-officers-career-guide.pdf What qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience do you need to apply? • There are no essential qualifications required to be a Fisheries Officer (other than possessing a current Australian Drivers Licence), however, the following are looked upon favourably: o Coxswains or higher o First Aid training o Certificate III (Seafood Industry) o Certificate IV in Government (Investigations) or Statutory Compliance or an appropriate equivalent qualification is desirable. • An employment background in compliance, regulatory or investigative related role(s) is an advantage but not essential. • You must possess good communication skills (written and verbal) and well-developed computer literacy.
So is QLD: https://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/compliance/queensland-boating-fisheries-patrol/join#qualifications Mandatory requirements One of the following qualifications:
Diploma of Government (Investigations) Diploma of Policing Diploma of Crime and Justice Studies Diploma of Fisheries Compliance Diploma or higher qualification in a relevant field e.g. marine or aquatic resources or an equivalence determination for the qualification held.
Work experience or service in a community voluntary organisation (e.g. Coast Guard, Air Sea Rescue, Landcare, Australian Surf Rescue, Surf Lifesaving).
Thank you!
Good luck
Please do not become a police officer. Yes, you may be a good person individually, but the system is terrible and no matter how good you are, you won’t make it better.
I don’t say this to be mean or judgemental, I promise. I say this callously because it is very important that you understand that the police are shit. Stay safe out there 🫡
I don't want to be a police officer please read the post
Oh, my apologies! I think I need to set my phone to have larger text tbh.
Glad to hear that, I still would probably not recommend police training, though. Unless you go stealth, I’d say it’s likely you would experience a significant amount of transphobia/micro-aggressions.
Why on earth would you do that
They have a very diverse range of people and being trans shouldnt have any real bearing on if you succeed.
Who you are as a human will have much more impact at the end of the day.
Remember you cant take the uniform off once you decide you wanted to put it on.
You will lose friends and family and likely your soul.
Add some ptsd on top for fun and its a great career choice.
Acab? Come on. Don’t get yourself into that kind of culture
tbh I think you're going to get relatively few people in this sub who would have any idea of what internal police culture is like at the moment (though probably a couple, we're diverse). Maybe r/AusPublicService or r/nswpolice could help you more?
(so far as I can see, there isn't a sub for australian police specifically?)
I'm not sure what a fisheries officer is but I think posting on a sub specifically for that would probably be more helpful, especially considering no one here is actually reading your post.
Aquaculture sounds like a good step in working towards becoming a fisheries officer. You could also look into other courses like fisheries compliance and maritime operations.
While the police training program is an option, the police at a systemic level and in terms of organisational culture, still have a long way to go in how they interact with diverse communities.
ETA: lifesaving might be a good fit for the types of skills you are looking for.