By CASEY NEILL
DODGING spit, fists and verbal abuse is all in a day’s work for custody officer Ellen Rider.
The Noble Park woman worked at Melbourne Remand Centre for the past 17 years before completing an accelerated custody officer training course and starting work at Dandenong Police Station a few weeks ago.
There she processes and transports prisoners in order to free up police officers so they can spend more time solving crimes and liaising with the community.
Dandenong is the busiest station for prisoners outside the metropolitan area.
It can sleep 22 prisoners across seven cells – four at the station and three at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court.
An 80-metre underground tunnel links the two custody areas. It’s cold, stark and has a blue glow – and no end in sight when the solid entry door closes behind.
Tunnel access is via an elevator with a lockable glass dividing door that holds three prisoners, handcuffed together, separate from the officers transporting them.
It’s fitted with a CCTV camera and many more of them line the tunnel. Like the lift, they were new additions during recent renovations.
Ms Rider and a second custody officer each work 10 eight-hour shifts a fortnight at Dandenong.
She’s looking forward to four more officers joining them in mid-March, with up to 19 expected to be in place by mid-year.
“I think that will make a real difference,” she said.
“It is quite busy here.”
Coming custody officers won’t have the background in the sector that Ms Rider benefits from, and she’s interested to see how they’ll settle in.
She recommended the job to people with some life experience and a thick skin – drugs and bravado make for unpredictable and sometimes aggressive prisoners.
“You’ll get called stuff,” she said.
“They’re not my friends so what they say to me doesn’t bother me.”
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams and Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Ben Carroll visited Dandenong Police Station on Wednesday 17 February to see how Ms Rider was settling in.
“I’m loving it,” she told them.
“The other half’s never seen me so happy.
“The staff really do a good job here and they’ve been very welcoming.”
She said the job was challenging but the police had been supportive and appreciative.
Greater Dandenong Inspector Bruce Kitchen said the full benefit of custody officers wouldn’t be felt until more were in place.
“Internally the reaction’s very positive. They just want more of them quicker,” he said.
He expects custody officers to help with police recruit retention rates by freeing officers to get out on the road and do the work they enjoy.
