Hanging up the uniform after more than 40 years

“It was Anzac Day, 1983 at Wangaratta.”

“I sort of walked in the door that morning going, all right, here we go.

“I was nervous.”

More than 40 years later, he’s a leading senior constable with Victoria Police and the sole officer at the Dookie Police Station.

“It’s gone pretty quickly, I can’t believe it, really,” Leading Sen Constable Hutchings said.

Now, just shy of 43 years on the job, he’s hanging up his uniform for the last time.

“It’s going to be strange, but I’m actually looking forward to hanging it up,” he said.

“It’s time for someone else to have a go at it.”

Throughout his career, Leading Sen Constable Hutchings has been all over the state.

From Wangaratta to Port Melbourne, St Kilda, Latrobe Valley, Robinvale, Seymour, Kyabram, Euroa, Wodonga, Tatura, and more.

His final stint, his longest in one spot, has been in Dookie.

He’s tried it all, from policing in metropolitan Melbourne to becoming the sole officer in Dookie where his police station shares a fence with two friendly goats who keep the grass in the lot next door in check.

It’s a post he’s enjoyed, becoming involved in the community.

Reflecting on his career on his final day on the job, Sunday, June 29, Leading Sen Constable Hutchings said he’s proud he’s been able to help people, and proud he’s bowing out by choice.

“I’m not going out bitter and twisted, I’m going out on my terms,” he said.

“I’ve chosen when I want to go, and how I want to go.”

However, his retirement has come a little sooner than Leading Sen Constable Hutchings had originally planned.

He’s part of a large cohort of long-serving Victoria Police officers exiting before the end of the year due to a new enterprise bargaining agreement that puts an end to a special entitlement that allowed officers to cash in on a year’s sick leave when retiring.

“That’s one reason,” he said.

Still, Leading Sen Constable Hutchings is ready to try something new.

He’s seen a lot in more than four decades on the job, some of it heart-wrenching.

From being first on the scene to fatal crashes, to notifying parents that their child will not come home, it’s the bad side of the job.

“There have been some horrific ones,” he said.

“It’s the middle of the night, you knock on the door.”

He recalls one night in particular when he had to tell a father his 19-year-old daughter was killed by a falling tree branch coming home from university.

“He was punching walls and damaging his hands. It was horrific.”

It’s the part of the job that can become overwhelming.

But Leading Sen Constable Hutchings said he’s lucky, he can switch off when he leaves work and has learned to compartmentalise.

His advice to young officers coming in is to take care of their own physical and mental fitness.

“And having interests outside the job, things you can just walk away from here and not even think about it because you’re involved in doing other things with other people away from the job… and not just going down to the pub and having a drink or going home and having a drink.”

Beyond coping with the harder parts of the job, Leading Sen Constable Hutchings encourages younger officers to listen to people, and find what they like.

“Listen to people’s stories,” he said.

“There’s always a couple of sides to stories.

“But just have a go, try different things in the job, move around, try different areas.”

As for the community, his parting advice is for people to call on the police when they need them.

“Just be aware and don’t hesitate to ring triple zero.”

Leading Sen Constable Hutchings said he’ll likely be replaced in Dookie in the coming months.

Moving forward, he wants to try something different.

He’s considering possibly working with people through NDIS.

Come July, he will no longer be an active police officer, but he’s not done working in the community just yet.