Tara Murray
Senior Sergeant Stephen Phillips wasn’t sure it was the right move for him when it was mentioned that he join Victoria Police’s Family Violence Investigation Unit.
While he was hesitant early on, Senior Sergeant Phillips found his passion and nearly a decade later is a key member of the unit.
A member of the Broadmeadows Family Violence Investigation Unit, Senior Sergeant Phillips was recently announced as one of the winners of the Glenn Paton Family Violence, Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Practitioner of the Year Awards.
The awards – which are run by Victoria Police’s Family Violence Command – recognise employees who have gone above and beyond while working in family violence, sexual offences and child abuse.
The awards are named in honour of the late Senior Constable Glenn Paton to recognise the positive impact he had on a victim experiencing family violence.
Senior Sergeant Phillips said it was a surprise to receive the family violence practitioner of the year award
“The organisation has come a long way in developing the way we respond,“ he said. “There are a lot of great practitioners. It’s nice to be recognised.”
Senior Sergeant Phillips won his award for his experience managing family violence matters, working as the family violence training officer and for regularly engaging family violence support agencies to ensure victim survivors are supported.
Senior Sergeant Phillips was based at Sunshine when a back injury relegated him to desk duties.
Now-Assistant Commissioner Chris Gilbert was in charge at the time and was looking at ways to employ Senior Sergeant Phillips.
“He suggested that I do rostering and I was useless as roasting,” he recalls. “I said I’ll do anything else you want me to do.
“He came back a couple of days later and said I want you to be a full time officer in the family violence office.
“I thought can I go back to rostering.”
Senior Sergeant Phillips said while he was initially not sure of the role, it ended up being the first time in his career that he felt he was helping improve people’s lives.
After spending most of his career in Brimbank and Melton, he moved across to Broadmeadows where he is now a trainer and gets to help the next generation of police develop the same passion that he has.
“I want to help people in saving lives by removing women and kids from family violence.”
Senior Sergeant Phillips said a lot had changed in the way that family violence is handled and the perception of it in the community but there was still plenty of work to be done.
He said that the psychological trauma can be much worse than the physical trauma and that a lot of the community was still too afraid to report incidents of family violence.
Senior Sergeant Phillips said he was hoping to inspire more police officers to represent what Glenn Paton stood for.
“He was working in his police station, just doing his job,” he said. “Many others would not have done what he did.
“He listened and took some action. The more constables like Glenn Paton, means I’m doing my job.”
