Gay groups optimistic about new police chief

Gay groups optimistic about new police chief

Victoria’s GLBTI community has given the thumbs-up to incoming Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland.
Overland, who was appointed to the top job last week, indicated in early press interviews that outgoing Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon’s community partnership-style policing would stay.
Overland has big boots to fill as far as the gay community is concerned. Nixon received a hero’s welcome at this year’s Pride march and is known for taking a stand on gay issues.
Overland has worked with Nixon since his appointment as Deputy Commissioner in 2006.
Anti-Violence Project spokesman Greg Adkins said he had a strong -œpositive perception from Overland’s initial indication he will be engaging with the broader community.
-œWe’re very pleased about that early insight into his thinking and the role Victoria Police has with the community, Adkins told Southern Star.
-œThat means the very proactive work of Christine Nixon in connecting with the gay community as part of many other different communities is destined to continue under the new police commissioner.
It is estimated that only 10 percent of homophobic crime is ever reported to police, a figure Adkins said he hopes improves under the new commissioner.
-œWe want to expand upon the great relationships between Victoria Police and the gay and lesbian community so levels of reporting rise from such an atrociously low level to one where every person who’s subject to violence feels comfortable putting their experience to police.
Adkins said he felt Overland comes from a -˜new guard’ of police command which is generally positive towards the gay and lesbian community, but said it was important not to return to the past when relationships between police and the community were strained.
-œAll it took was a police commissioner and a conservative Liberal party minister who had homophobic tendencies and the relationship between the police and the gay community was a disaster.
-œIt’s only been eight years since that terrible relationship existed and we should never forget that it can be easily undone by values and attitudes in the positions of power.
Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby co-convenor Hayley Conway said she was also hopeful about the appointment.
-œWe’re really optimistic about it and hope we can work with him as well and as easily as we did with Christine Nixon … and [hope] he can keep improving that cultural and community awareness within Victoria Police.
-œCertainly Victoria Police have gone out of their way, pushing a decade now, to really connect with the community and that’s the sort of thing that can’t just be led by one person.
-œCertainly it’s not something Christine Nixon could have done on her own and so the support must be there and that alleviates some of the concerns we would have ordinarily.

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