General News
18 August, 2022
Williams family mark three generations with Victoria Police
The local police station sees plenty of shift changeovers each day but earlier this week saw a very special one take place, with one of Maryborough’s newest recruits, third-generation officer Constable Laura Williams working a shift with her dad...
The local police station sees plenty of shift changeovers each day but earlier this week saw a very special one take place, with one of Maryborough’s newest recruits, third-generation officer Constable Laura Williams working a shift with her dad, Sergeant Trevor Williams.
Graduating from the Victoria Police Academy on April 14 this year, Laura was recently stationed at Maryborough as her first official posting and having worked quite a few shifts already, certainly wasn’t expecting to bump into her father as she clocked in on Tuesday.
Organised as a surprise between Trevor, who is based out of Ballarat, and Maryborough’s Senior Sergeant Wendy Lambert, the shift marked a significant moment in both Laura and her father’s careers.
“Being a police officer has been in the family and I’ve been able to see what the work is like through dad coming home and talking about it as well as my grandfather too,” Laura said.
“I joined as a police custody officer and then worked in the prison system and realised it really wasn’t for me and that I should have just joined Victoria Police straight away.
“I never really thought I’d work as a police officer but working as a custody officer, I realised it is what I wanted to do so I bit the bullet and went for it — it’s been great.”
A third-generation Victoria Police officer, Laura follows in the footsteps of her father and his father before him, with her grandfather, Sergeant Clive Williams who graduated from the academy in 1956, going on to work in Highway Patrol on the Hume and later Western Highway for 24 years.
Similarly, Trevor also ended up in Highway Patrol in Ballarat, Melton and Caroline Springs after graduating in 1989 and currently works in communications at Ballarat. He has been an officer for 33 years.
Now in the job for several months, Laura said she’s loving it so far and that working with her father was a special moment.
“I’m absolutely loving it — every day is something different and you never know what you’ll be doing which is exciting,” she said.
“I never thought I’d get the opportunity to work with dad and it’s something that’s pretty special.”
Trevor said he’d always hoped one of his daughters would become a police officer and that he was proud of Laura’s achievements.
“I’m very proud of Laura, she’s done extremely well both in the academy and also at her first station here in Maryborough,” he said.
“From when she was a child, I never thought this would happen — I always hoped one of our kids would follow in their dad’s footsteps but never thought I’d work a shift alongside Laura.
“Our eldest daughter followed in her mum’s footsteps and became a nurse and Laura has followed in my footsteps which is really nice.
“Dad was a mechanic before he joined the police force and I was a mechanic too but I always wanted to join the police because I liked what dad did so it’s becoming a bit of a family tradition.
“I hope she enjoys the job as much as I have over the last 33 years.”
Having organised the surprise shift a while ago, Trevor said the hardest part about it was keeping it all a secret.
“I’ve seen a few other officers organise things like this in the past and I thought it would be good to do, it really hits the spot,” he said.
“When Laura came to Maryborough I thought it was the perfect time to do something.
“I’ve been excited for it ever since it was all approved, I think keeping it from Laura was the hardest part of it all. I’m very proud of her.”
