General Duties Police Officers
Maintain public order, protect life and property, prevent anti-social behaviour and enforce laws by patrolling public areas, responding to reports of offences and arresting suspected offenders.
A Friday night patrol
You are a general duties police officer on a night patrol, responding to calls in a mix of busy streets and quiet suburbs. It is 9pm on a Friday. The radio is already busy, your partner is driving, and three jobs are waiting. You will not be able to attend to them all at once.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Unit four, we have three jobs waiting. A noise complaint at Rosewood Street, a car collision on the ring road with no injuries reported, and a lost teenager at the shopping centre. Which do you take first?
Go to the noise complaint first because the neighbours have already called twice
While you talk to the party, the teenager at the shopping centre waits alone and frightened as the shops close. A job that is repeated is not always the most urgent.
Take the lost teenager first and ask for another unit to cover the collision
You reach the shopping centre in minutes, find the young person upset but safe, and call their parent. Another unit takes the collision. A person who may be at risk comes before property.
Go to the collision because traffic might get worse and more people are involved
You clear the road quickly, which helps drivers, but the teenager waits another half hour alone. Public safety on a busy road is real, but a missing child has to be weighed carefully.
I'm sorry, officer, I know I was speeding. My mum's in hospital and I was trying to get there. Please, can you just let me go with a warning? I have never done this before.
Be kind, explain what you need to check, complete the stop properly and offer to call a person to help
Josh passes the checks and receives the correct outcome for his speed. You offer to call the hospital, and he feels treated fairly and with dignity. Kind and correct can go together.
Let him go with a warning, because he has been honest and is clearly distressed
Josh drives away, relieved, but he was also driving unsafely and without having been tested. Compassion matters, but a driver in distress can still be a danger.
Tell him the rules are the rules and deal with it quickly without discussing his mother
Josh is angry and tells his family you did not care. You did your job, but you missed a chance to treat a worried person with respect, which is part of the job too.
I've got your notes from tonight's collision. The paperwork is thin, and the other driver says you were rude. Walk me through exactly what happened, and be honest if something went differently.
Tell her the other driver was exaggerating, and move quickly on
The sergeant reviews body-worn footage and finds a moment you spoke sharply. Being defensive makes it worse than the mistake itself would have.
Give a clear account in order, own up to the sharp moment, and say what you would change
The sergeant is satisfied, adds a note, and moves on. Being open about a slip builds trust that no clean record can. Honest reports are the foundation of police work.
Say you do not remember the details clearly and offer to rewrite your notes for her tomorrow morning
The sergeant gives you until morning, but your memory will be worse. Writing things up while they are fresh is a habit that protects you and the public.
How it went
Your shift ends in the early hours. You have helped a frightened teenager, a worried son and a driver on a bad night, and you have the paperwork to prove it. Police work is mostly talking and judging what matters most. Could you stay calm and fair when everyone wants something different from you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The man who kept walking at night
A fictional case set in a general duties police shift in a fictional suburban and country patrol area.
The situation
At two in the morning, Constable Kelly and her partner received a call from a resident about an older man in pyjamas walking along the highway shoulder. He did not respond to his name and kept saying he had to get to work. A truck had already swerved around him. The patrol had another job waiting across town, and the man did not appear to be hurt or in trouble.
What they did
Constable Kelly pulled over with the lights on to warn traffic and walked up slowly, speaking softly. She asked him about his work and walked beside him toward the car. He did not know where he lived. In the back seat she gave him a blanket and checked for a bracelet or card with contact details. They found a phone number inside his coat, and she rang his family while her partner called in the delay.
How it turned out
His daughter arrived within half an hour, thanking them in tears. The man had been missing from his home for hours and had dementia. The constable followed up with the family the next day and put them in touch with a local support service.
What would you do?
- Why was patience more useful here than giving instructions?
- How would you balance helping one person against a waiting job?
- What parts of police work do you think people do not usually see?