Medal green light for traffic cop

By Shaun Inguanzo
TRAFFIC is Senior Sergeant Ken Dunlop’s passion.
In a Utopian society, Sen Sgt Dunlop admits he would be out of a job.
There would be no accidents, no speeding motorists and no drunk or drugged drivers to contend with.
But in reality, Sen Sgt Dunlop and his team at the Region Five South East Regional Traffic Tasking Unit are invaluable assets for ensuring law-abiding motorists get safely from A to B on the region’s roads.
Sen Sgt Dunlop, who turns 59 this year, was awarded the prestigious Australian Police Medal over the Queen’s Birthday weekend for his more than 35 year commitment to traffic policing.
His love for traffic policing began when he first joined the Mobile Traffic Section in 1973.
“You could say that a majority of my career since then has been with traffic,” Sen Sgt Dunlop said.
“I love the freedom because instead of patrolling just one area, we’ve got a much bigger area to look after.”
Sen Sgt Dunlop and his team coordinate special operations in the region’s traffic hot spots to bust drink drivers and speeding motorists. The region includes the south-eastern municipalities of Casey, Cardinia and Greater Dandenong. The Regional Traffic Tasking Unit is based at Dandenong Police Station.
His unit is not to be confused with the Traffic Management Units which are day-to-day traffic units tasked with patrolling individual municipalities.
Instead, think of Sen Sgt Dunlop and his unit as a crack traffic patrolling unit, consisting often of four cars and two motorbikes and covering the vast Region Five area.
As officer in charge of the unit, Sen Sgt Dunlop said he was fortunate to be surrounded by other officers with a passion for traffic.
“The people I have had working with me have all got a passion for traffic, and it’s a great team to work with,” he said.
Because of his wealth of experience, the police force asked Sen Sgt Dunlop to work as one of several Traffic and Transport commanders for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March last year.
“It is about the biggest thing I have ever worked on,” he said.
“We had members coming from all over the state, working all over the metro area and doing various traffic control duties. And we were working very long hours.
“My main responsibility was to make sure we had personnel on duty at the right place and at the right time.
“We (the Traffic and Transport commanders) tasked them to various duties so they arrived at locations at the right time and mainly made sure that the community was still able to get from point A to point B, too.”
Sen Sgt Dunlop is well respected within the motorcycle community for his work coordinating traffic during the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island and planning the Blue Ribbon Foundation’s Ride to Remember.
He said he had formed close bonds with, and earned respect from, people more commonly known as ‘bikies’.
“They feel they can come up to us and talk about anything,” Sen Sgt Dunlop said.
“And we just chat, as you would with any friend.”
Sen Sgt Dunlop said his goals were to continue reducing road trauma for drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
But he said police would be pushing the impossible to claim that one day the road toll would be zero.
“It is wishful thinking and we’d love to have that occur but don’t see it occurring,” he said.
“I believe people make honest mistakes, although you will see in the media a number of vehicles being impounded because of people making conscious decisions as to what they do on the road.
“That is what creates a problem because as far as I’m concerned they (motorists breaking the law) are being selfish and not thinking about the other members of the community who go about their business in a safe manner.”
So with such an action packed career, does Sen Sgt Dunlop rate his Australian Police Medal as the pinnacle of his achievements? “I’d have to say yes, considering it’s a Commonwealth award, and part of the Australian Honours.
“It is one of the highest awards any police member throughout Australia can get.”
Sen Sgt Dunlop will receive the medal during a ceremony later this year and until then says he will continue doing what he loves.
“I am going to stay where I am, doing what I do best,” he said.
“And I’m having fun doing it.”