By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Victoria Police’s Superintendent Charles Allen describes himself as once a police officer, now a peace officer.
The once-local police commander at Dandenong has been recognised with a Police Service Medal in the 2018 Australia Day Honours.
On leave from VicPol, Mr Allen is now a fly-in consultant with the Institute for Economics and Peace. His clients have included the Ugandan government.
Yet his police service has not been far removed from peace building.
He was at the helm in Dandenong, dealing with community tensions in the wake of the “racially-motivated” murder of teenager Liep Gony in 2007.
“That was a fair signpost there was something going horribly wrong in the community,” Mr Allen said.
“There was a whole lot of work to do, and not all of that was policing.”
The response was a prototype of contemporary policing. It included YSAS outreach workers and police working together on patrols to intervene in “real time”.
“Enforcement is a really blunt instrument. That model alone isn’t going to drive change.”
In 2014, he was promoted to Superintendent, overseeing “priority and safer communities”.
Today with the Institute, he’s working with impressive young leaders in the South Sudanese Australian community.
Working with these influencers is a “grass-roots” way of resolving conflict, based on research, Mr Allen says.
It’s a successful method, building on strengths not negatives, that forms “sustainable, peaceful communities”.
“We know peace is hard won and it is also fragile.”
Mr Allen’s 36 years of police service includes being an investigator at Dandenong CIU and the Homicide Squad.
He also helped rectify gender bias in police recruitment, which led to a significant increase in female officers.
Much of his policing life was in Dandenong – a place he still has a “hell of a lot of affection for”.
He notes that the outsiders’ view is that Greater Dandenong is unsafe. But surveys show the perceptions of locals was very different.
“It’s a vibrant, multicultural place. Dandenong is a fantastic community to live, work and play.”
