A job that saves lives

There is no greater job satisfaction than being able to make a difference in somebody else’s life.

This is a result carried across all careers in Victoria Police, whether working from an office or on the beat.

For Horsham Police Detective Sergeant Mathew Olston, joining Victoria Police at 23 opened up many pathways into a career that would lead to him helping people every day.

Det Sgt Olston joined the police academy in 2007, after working in his family’s business in Horsham.

He landed the position of detective in 2012 after working in a crime squad and fugitive task force in Melbourne before moving to the Horsham Family Violence Investigation Unit where he now works.

He took on the role when the position was first introduced into Victoria Police in 2017 following a Royal Commission into family violence.

Det Sgt Olston said he gained a great deal of gratification from helping people in vulnerable situations.

“I grew up in Horsham working in the family butchery. I wanted something where each day was different to the last,” he said.

“There’s a sense of satisfaction for what you do in the force, because you can quickly make a difference and see improvements with the people you deal with and make sure a problem does not persist.”

Det Sgt Olston said he responded to serious family violence crimes across the Wimmera.

“The office I’m in covers the whole division from Lake Bolac and Hamilton, right across to Apsley and up to Serviceton,” he said.

“It’s a very big distance and one of our main challenges is making sure we give the same service to people who live in Horsham as to the rest of the district.”

He said his position could be summarised into two key responsibilities.

“The main function of our role in the Family Violence Investigation Unit is investigating serious family-violence criminal incidents,” he said.

“The other part is managing the risk around family violence – this includes engaging with services and holding perpetrators to account.”

Det Sgt Olston said his working week started with prioritising cases.

“Our day starts with a triage process, which means going through all the incidents from the previous day,” he said.

“Victoria Police uses a case prioritisation response model, developed by Swinburne University, that picks up on certain incidents deemed high risk.

“As part of that process we identify what is considered high risk, which our office then takes on.”

He said the investigation process would start following case prioritisation.

“A lot of the investigations that come to us are initially tendered by frontline members – if they attend an incident and a victim has ended up in hospital for example, a detective would then go with the crime scene officer to the crime scene and they would assess the scene and work out what had occurred,” he said.

“Then, we speak to the victim – once we understand the nature of the incident we then go to arrest and interview the offender, they’re likely to be remanded in custody, especially when they’re in breach of prevention orders.”

Det Sgt Olston said after the investigation was over, the courts then dealt with the offender and police continued to monitor the victim.

“We continue to monitor from there and we still engage with the victim – if they’re engaged with the health service, we leave them to do their job and we continue to monitor the court outcome,” he said.

“If the offender gets released, we do proactive prevention-order compliance checks so if they do breach any conditions that’s another reason to get them remanded in custody.”

Det Sgt Olston said one of the biggest challenges of his role was working with the community to identify what qualified as family violence.

“It’s a very difficult thing for people to report. We need to break that stigma down and get the community to understand what those warning signs are and when people should speak up,” he said.

“It’s identifying what family violence is – everyone knows getting hit is family violence but understanding it is psychological too. If that sort of situation is reported to police, we can look at putting prevention orders in place to stop that behaviour.”

Det Sgt Olston said it was fulfilling being in a position where he could help people.

“It can be challenging at times, but this is an area where you can make a difference,” he said.

“When you see you’ve made somebody safe, you have improved someone’s life.”