By Derek Schlennstedt
Policing is changing, and Sergeant Michael Aston, the new officer-in-charge (OIC) at Monbulk understands the importance of working within the local community.
After seven years as Monbulk Officer-in-Charge, Mark Knight has hung up the badge.
Though, Sgt Aston hopes to continue the work and the relationships formed during Mark’s tenure.
“I want to continue what Mark has done, he’s run the place really well for seven years and has a huge amount of influence in the town, and I just want to continue that,” Sgt Ashton said.
With 18 years of police work under his belt, Sgt Aston has worked in both rural units in isolated East Gippsland Yarram, and also in the busy city streets of Melbourne.
But, it was the community feel of rural suburbs and the capacity to engage with locals and undertake a proactive approach to make a ‘real difference’ that beckoned him to Monbulk.
“Really looking forward to being proactive and getting into the community, getting to know the community and having some real ownership with things that happen here and not just policing,” he said.
“Mark’s been on many community groups and I’m looking forward to continuing that.”
Though Monbulk is not a 24/7 manned station, Sgt Aston urged people to continue to contact the station and leave a message, or to dial triple-zero if urgent.
“We have an answering service here and once we get the message, we will contact people back,” he said.
“We urge them to leave a message … if it’s something they have seen or heard, they don’t need to leave a name if they don’t want to.”
“If we’re not there for whatever reason there are certainly other police that can come.”
It’s not all work though, and Sgt Aston said when he’s not working he enjoys renovating their house in the Yarra Valley, where he and his family have lived for seven years.
Sgt Aston said he looked forward to becoming a part of the Monbulk community and hearing people’s concerns and worries.
“I want to keep the community involved in the policing here … it’s not just about us getting out and nabbing crooks or stopping people from doing things, it’s all about the community and their involvement,” he said.
“We need people to ring up and let us know if they see something suspicious.
“People that hear or see something, they might think it’s really insignificant and means nothing, but for us it might be that little bit of information that we need to solve a crime.”
