Police careers course at Adelaide's Thebarton Senior College from 2024; SAPOL seeking to recruit with diversity
South Australian police officers promoting the Pathways to Policing programme at Thebarton Senior College in Adeaide's inner west. A "You Belong in Blue” recruiting campaign (inset), with a theme of welcoming diversity, also was launched by the South Australian force in 2023.
In an Australia first, Adelaide’s Thebarton Senior College’s Year 12 students from 2024 would be offered courses designed to prepare them for a career with South Australian police force.
The Pathways to Policing programme at Thebarton Senior College was to provide a faster easier route into policing, and South Australia police (SAPOL) planned to make it available later at more South Australian schools. Police would be involved in the school programme as guest speakers, with visits to the police academy and police stations, plus work experience for a role as a police officer, police security officer or community constable. Course work would be five SACE (South Australian Certification of Education) Stage 2 subjects, including a research project, information processing and publishing, essential English, workplace practices, and fitness and wellbeing.
Cadets joining the force didn’t need to be straight out of school. More than 49% of applicants were aged 18-25, the average age of cadetswas 28-30 with the occasional 50 year old in the mix. Extra cadet courses meant 900 police officers and 250 police security officers would graduate from the police academy and start their careers with SAPOL over the next three years from 2023.
In 2023, South Australia police launched a “You Belong in Blue” recruiting campaign, with a theme of welcoming diversity into the force. SAPOL officers featured in the campaign ads around Adelaide on billboards and the side of buses, highlighting different cultural background and social orientations.
South Australia police force also pointed to leading the way in gender diversity. In 1915, it was Australia’s first to have women police officers and, in 1999, also the first to appoint a woman to a tactical response group. SAPOL executive director of people, culture and wellbeing, Kim-Sherie Summers, said the force had faced diversity challenges head on and was proud of achieving a 50/50 recruitment strategy since 2016 and a 2021-2025 diversity and inclusion strategy. In 2023, females made up 37.3% of active SAPOL employees.
SAPOL alsohad relaxed its dress code, with gender-neutral hair standards and visible non-offensive tattoos allowed. Summers noted that “overnight, we grew a lot of man buns, and sleeves got rolled up really fast.”
The force also offered a diversity of roles, with more than 40 specialties, from working in crime scene, dog operations, prosecution, or water operations to being a mounted horse officer.