Janelle Tonkin is now in charge of NT Police Northern Command at Katherine Police Station.
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Commander Tonkin brings a wealth of experience to the position from the Territory, interstate and abroad, and says she has no end-date attached to her stay in Katherine.
"I live here so people will see my family and I out and about, I've got two boys aged six and three and they're being enrolled in school here in Katherine," she said.
"We love the Territory lifestyle and there's talk of getting a boat, so we've got no end-date to our stay here," Commander Tonkin said.
She commenced her policing career with South Australia Police in 2001 before transitioning to the Northern Territory Police Force in January 2008 and being posted to Alice Springs Police Station.
Commander Tonkin says the contrast between Adelaide and the Territory couldn't have been more stark.
"Moving to Alice and being put straight on the night shift was an eye-opening experience, when two weeks before I'd been drinking lattes in Adelaide," she said.
"Central and remote Australia remains really unknown to the majority of Australians living in the big cities.
"It was an unimaginable experience and I'm still here, so obviously something about the Territory and its lifestyle caught me and there's no looking back," Commander Tonkin said.
In August 2014, she was a central part of the Integrated Response to Domestic and Family Violence Project team in Alice Springs as a Sergeant of the Domestic Violence unit.
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This program saw Police work closely with other government and non-government service providers to tailor solutions towards specific cases of family violence.
It won the Excellence in Law Enforcement for Women's Initiative Award and Janelle's work then saw her applying the same framework across the Territory, including in Katherine.
It is this holistic approach to understanding social issues she hopes to effect positive change in Katherine.
"It's a key priority of mine to continue maintaining and building relationships across the full-scope of service providers in Katherine," she said.
"The police needs to ensure it isn't operating in a silo and finds out what the root causes are for some of the issues we see here.
"We're not interested in 'band-aid' fixes, so I'll be putting a focus on the frameworks of collaboration between police and service-providers," Commander Tonkin said.
The Commander previously held Officer in Charge positions Domestic Violence and Major crash units before being promoted to Superintendent in Darwin in January 2017.
She was also awarded the overall Outstanding Executive Leadership Development Aware in 2019 following her participation in an International Policing program in Canada and Hong Kong.
With her latest promotion she becomes the only female among 9 Police Commanders in the Northern Territory, and sees her imminent challenge in the position as managing the progressive easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
"We've seen some silver-linings in a really bad situation with the reduction of crime overall, and in particular the reduction in harms related to alcohol and drugs," the Commander said.
"As the restrictions ease, we need to be vigilant in maintaining those small victories as people come back out and can access these things again.
"It's been amazing to see the way all front-line services have been able to respond under immense pressure during the crisis.
"The challenges before us are different but I'm optimistic about there potentially being a chance here to reset the new normal," she said.
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