00:06 - Simon (Host)

Welcome to this episode of the Enabled Podcast. I'm your host, Simon Order. Great to have your company On the Enabled podcast. We talk about all things, all abilities, inclusion, diversity and, the most important thing, accessibility. Our goal is to bring you the stories of lived experience, the amazing projects, the trials, the tribulations and much more from the all abilities enabled community. The Enabled Podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes organisation.

On today's episode we go to an Ability Heroes Friendship Group meeting at Deepwater Point in Mount Pleasant, Western Australia. So what is a Friendship Group meeting? The Friendship Group meetings happen monthly. The all-ability folks in Australia come together, we listen to a guest speaker from the community and we have a chat about the issues and what's going on for everybody. The Friendship Group meetings are an opportunity to build networks, make friends and share developments in our community. Today you'll hear from Senior Constable Tracey Averling from the Murdoch Police Station and she gives her take on inclusion and accessibility.

01:29 - Senior Constable Aveling

So I'm currently at Murdoch Police Station. I've been there for just over two years now. I'm a general duties officer, which means when you call triple zero or 131, triple four, I will be the person that arrives at your doorstep.

01:41 - Simon

And it turns out that the police already have a disability access and inclusion plan.

01:47 - Senior Constable Aveling

If you go on our website, the plan is created in accordance with legislations, laws and through business partnerships with different groups like the NDIS, all of the other groups that can have a say in what they think we should be doing as a police force to support people with disabilities.

02:09 - Simon

And Tracey reminded me that the best place to start your inclusion and accessibility journey is in your own workplace.

02:15 - Senior Constable Aveling

There are currently just over 10,000 WA police force employees. That includes sworn officers and unsworn officers and of that number, 2.2% identifies having a disability. Now I personally know of a civilian staff member who works at our control centre. She is confined to a wheelchair and was moved into the building in Midland. Lots of adjustments had to be made to help with her access. They recently put in new lifts, obviously accessible toilets, so we have adapted to help those people that we employ so that they do have the same access as everyone else to be able to do the job.

03:11 - Simon

So the police force is actively promoting accessibility and inclusion within their ranks. That's good news for anyone wanting to join the force. But how do the police engage with the wider community? Almost 1 in 5 people in Australia identify as living with a disability. It's inevitable that those people will come into contact with the police at some point.

03:34 - Senior Constable Aveling

We work with the Disability Service Justice Unit. If anyone comes into police custody that has a disability, we liaise with them. If people have mental impairments or physical disabilities, we know we can't just treat them the same as another person. There are other things that we need to put in place, and so we work with other organisations to make sure they're receiving the same treatment as everybody else, but it’s tailored to them, which is a learning curve.

Sometimes we do have people come into police custody and we might not have dealt with their condition before, and it's all about learning. When people get frustrated, it can come across as aggression, and for us it's about learning and knowing the difference between  aggression and  frustration. Certainly, when we have dealt with people with those sorts of conditions, we then place an alert against their name. So then any police officer after that date knows actually this person has a brain injury. It's not aggression, they're trying to deal with it in their way and we need to understand that.

04:44 - Simon

Senior Constable Tracey Aveling is maybe hinting at a difficult conundrum here. Nobody wants to wear a badge saying I live with a disability. This awareness of difference is a challenge for both the police and the all abilities community, but this is slowly improving. It's great to see the police showing awareness in this space. They are also beginning to show their accessibility credentials through their physical spaces.

05:10 - Senior Constable Aveling

So access to WA police buildings and facilities. A lot of our buildings are quite old. Palmyra police station has recently undergone a bit of a makeover. They've been given a new access ramp. They're much more friendlier to be able to access the services. And if anyone saw on the news, Armadale Police Station is now a super spaceship. They've invested a lot of money and they've got a whole new building. The court's been put in there. It's all completely accessible. We're here to help people and we want to make sure that we can help everyone that's coming through the door or calling us.

05:51 - Simon

So it sounds like access to police buildings is improving. That's good news. Let's move our focus now to being out and about in the community. Occasionally we receive police alerts on our phones about people who are lost somewhere in the community, and can we help? Of course we can help, but not all disabilities are visible, and sometimes the invisible can be more challenging. The invisible conditions may be described as autism or cognitive impairments, and as we age, some of us will develop dementia. It's estimated that six out of 10 people living with dementia will wander at least once, so some of us are at risk of getting lost, and planning ahead is the key to saving lives.

06:37 - Senior Constable Aveling

WA police have recently assisted in initiating a thing called ‘Safe and Found’. It's kind of been put in place to help people with dementia brain injuries that are at high risk of possibly going missing. People with dementia may go for regular walks. They know their regular route and then this one day they might become confused or disoriented and they go off route. So ‘Safe and Found’ has been implemented to help those people so that we can find them if they're reported missing. It's a great website. If you know of anyone or family, neighbours, that you think may benefit from ‘Safe and Found’, you can register online. You enter all their details, their medical issues. If they go for walks on regular routes, you can tell us that's their regular route. So if they were to go missing, it kind of gives us a heads up of where we need to start looking for them. We also have access to Auslan interpreters and language interpreters as well. We have a big long list of people that we can call at any time of the day for any translation needs. We want to be inclusive to everyone.

07:55 - Simon

Just a reminder, this podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes organisation and that was Senior Constable Tracey Aveling from the Murdoch Police Station in Western Australia, talking to the Ability Heroes Friendship Group Meeting in Mount Pleasant. Tracey outlined the WA police approach to accessibility and inclusion, not only in their own buildings but also in the community. Tracey finished her presentation and then she opened up for questions.

08:22 - Friendship Group Attendee 1

Are they taught the difference between a pet dog and a seeing-eye dog? A couple of times when I've been out I've had ‘candy cane cops’ or a security guard (whatever you want to call them) come over and go to drag my dog’s lead out of my hand and turn to me and say you can't bring a dog in here. You can get him when you finish doing your shopping. And I thought, “well, hang on, how am I going to see where I'm going to start off with?” You touch that lead. It's assault, because he's an extension of me.

08:55 - Senior Constable Aveling

I can honestly say I've not seen any training in respect to that. More and more disabilities issues are coming out as we move on. I personally know about seeing eye dogs. I know that there was a female recently who tried to book into a hotel over east with her dog and the minute she walked in the room they kicked her out. That again is about education.

09:19 - Friendship Group Attendee 1

One, they're breaking a state law. Two, they're breaking a federal law. Three, they're going against the human rights charter for equal opportunities.

09:31 - Senior Constable Aveling

Regardless of what situation it is, it's like going to a restaurant. No offense to Dome, but if you have a rubbish coffee, you're not going back, or you're going to tell them, or you're not going to pay for your meal because you're not happy with it, and it's the same with the police force. If you're not happy, you need to be heard and you need to say that.

And there are complaints. They've actually tied in the commendation and complaints system together, so you can either phone your local station and say I want to make a complaint or you can go online on the website. There's a box you can tick to make a formal complaint. So again, it's about education.

10:16 - Simon

Education is most definitely the key to effective inclusion and accessibility, and our world is just beginning to wake up in this regard. Another member of our community asks a similar question about police training.

10:31 - Friendship Group Attendee 2

I do have a question. I guess it's just about what sort of training in regards to accessibility that is in the recruitment process and in the screening process. If there's any questions asked about a police person's attitudes towards accessibility or inclusivity?

10:48 - Senior Constable Aveling

I went through the academy quite a while ago now and, as with anything, I'd like to think obviously things have progressed and we've learned from these sorts of things. Obviously, this disability access and inclusion plan is there and available for everyone. We once a year have to do an equal opportunities training packet, so that covers things like disabilities, race, age, all of those sorts of things. So generally, all police officers should be, you know, pretty up to date with how we should be treating people or what you know, the things we can offer people or how we can get them in touch with other services if it's needed in the works. So yeah, the recruits definitely get that.

11:32 - Simon

Just a reminder. This podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes Organisation and that was Senior Constable Tracey Aveling from the Murdoch Police Station in Western Australia.

Many thanks to Tracey, and thanks for your company today. On the Enabled podcast, I'm your host, Simon Order, and I look forward to bringing you more enabled words and sounds in the very near future. Stay with us in this space. We have some awesome guests coming up on future shows. Have a great week!