“I do know my way around, obviously more so the Northern Grampians area and I’m learning about Horsham,” Insp Johnson said.
“We obviously had meetings and we were always up and about up here, so I knew a lot of friendly faces when I came back.”
Insp Johnson said she had noticed in her first four weeks at Horsham that it was ‘a really good, really strong community’.
She said one of her major focuses was building strong relationships between police and the community.
“It’s about giving our community a voice and being able to understand what’s important to them and what their priorities are as a community, because it may well be different to our priorities and we don’t want to be on different pages,” she said.
“I know there are already strong relationships with the community and the police, but I really want to strengthen those relationships, and work towards a better Horsham.
“Not saying that it’s not great now, but I just really want to get those ideas of what our community wants and needs, and be able to deliver on what that is.”
Insp Johnson said methods such as community sentiment surveys and forums were ideal ways to gauge the issues that were important to residents. She said issues such as road policing always ranked high in importance for the community.
“I come now into this role with fresh eyes and no preconceived ideas about road policing because it’s not my speciality, but we do have speciality police in that area – it’s really interesting that’s the focus here,” she said.
Insp Johnson regularly drives on the Western Highway where she witnesses first-hand the issues around driver behaviour and road conditions.
And its not just the Horsham community that Insp Johnson is getting to know – she also overseas police officers in Hindmarsh and West Wimmera municipalities, and has already visited many towns in those shires.
“If people want to learn about community policing, they need to go and spend some time at a one-member station. They do a wonderful job,” Insp Johnson said.
“The community engagement they do is – that’s community policing.”
Insp Johnson said family violence was always an area of focus for Victoria Police and she was aware that Horsham had high rates of family violence.
“We do everything we can to put the services in place for both perpetrators and affected family members of family violence situations,” she said.
“It’s something we’re diligent about, it’s something we’re always learning about, and as always, there are opportunities in that space to get better.
“There’s opportunities in all areas of policing for us to get better and hopefully with a new set of eyes and some new visions, I can bring that to the forefront of the policing here in Horsham.”
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