By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
SERGEANT John ‘Blackers’ Blackburn looks back at the last 10 years and wonders where they went.
The police veteran has been working at the Endeavour Hills station since it opened, and on Tuesday night he was among many past and present cops from the facility who celebrated its 10th birthday at the Churchill Park Golf Club.
The Endeavour Hills police station was opened in November 2004 by Senior Sergeant Mike Jenkins, who was coming off an 18-year stint at Oakleigh.
While he only served at Endeavour Hills for three years before retiring, Sgt Blackburn said Mike’s fingerprints were all over the station.
“There was an old Doveton police station which was basically wound down in the late ’80s early ’90s and then Narre opened, but with the growth in the area there was a service need for police in Endeavour Hills,” he said.
“The Endeavour Hills station works in the Casey PSA (Police Service Area), so basically we can cover everywhere, going to jobs anywhere in Casey.”
Sgt Blackburn is one of three police officers who have worked at the station since it was set up, the others being Sgt Andrea Winfield and Sgt Mick Sheers. These are three cops who typify the family-like environment that is palpable at the Endeavour Hills station.
“The area has clearly had an issue with hoon behaviour. We had a lot of trouble with youths and hoon behaviour when we first started, and we’ve clearly reduced that,” Sgt Blackburn said.
“It’s made the streets a lot safer. Areas like the skate park here, the skate park at Doveton, Autumn Place – your strip shopping centres have become a lot safer because of your high density police patrols.”
The station made international headlines in September when terrorist suspect, Numan Haider, was shot dead outside the facility after stabbing two police officers.
Sgt Blackburn noted that the incident could have happened at any station but Endeavour Hills ended up being the unlucky one.
But he did says the event had made the group “more aware”.
“With the world we’ve moved into, we’ve got to be aware of the changes and perils that we face and that people in uniform face,” Sgt Blackburn said.
Sgt Winfield remembers having a coffee with the two police officers hours before they were stabbed.
“It certainly came from left field, because Blackers and I worked during the day,” she said.
“There was no indication that anything heavy was going to go down, it was totally unexpected.”
