‘From walking the beat to getting my gear off’: Bullied cop’s new act
A year ago, a stressed-out Luke Withey left SA Police after seven years. Here he details what life in the force is really like.
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In a darkened, twisting corridor of an apartment block in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, young police officer Luke Withey found himself trapped by a violent gang member – and fearing for his life for the third time in his short, seven-year career.
With no line of sight to an escape route, Withey pulled out his gun and yelled at the gang member to get on the ground.
“He slowly goes down and finally lifts up his left hand ... and I jump on him and I’m putting him in an arm block,” says the now 33-year-old, who had chased the threatening man through the apartment block that had been teeming with gang members when he pulled up to investigate.
“Then my colleague walks over and pulls this massive, long knife out of his back. It was literally life or death – doesn’t matter if you’ve got a gun. They’ll reach you at that distance and they’ll stab you. And if they get the wrong part, you’re dead.”
That terrifying stand-off in 2023 became the last straw for the stressed-out first-class constable, who was already feeling relentlessly bullied by a co-worker and was drowning in an “insane” tidal wave of investigations, operations and traffic stops.
“I was like ‘I’ve had enough of this’,” says Withey, who reported his bully and applied for stress leave, taking four months off from his job.
But after his application was unsuccessful and he was forced back to work at the end of 2023, the officer reached the end of the line.
Today, a year after leaving the serious business of life on the beat – and despite having no previous experience as a performer – he’s playing it for laughs in a comedy cabaret at the Adelaide Fringe.
Now known by his stage name, Lucas Andrews, he’s starring as Austin Powers in Pop Culture Cabaret in a showpiece 800-seat tent at Fool’s Paradise in Victoria Square.
The new artist – who has retrained as an aerialist and dancer – appears in the “world’s most shagadelic show” alongside circus contortionists, fire artists, a foot archer and his fiance and creative partner, Melissa Tyson.
She introduced him to the entertainment scene while he was still working with SAPOL.
“She said, ‘I can see you on stage, you should think about acting,’” says Withey, who has appeared in two feature films – including Numbered Lives with Entourage actor Jeremy Piven – and worked as a model since leaving the police force in January last year.
“I hadn’t even thought about it before.”
Withey’s first appearance on stage came just weeks after he left SA Police, when he starred as a hapless Han Solo in Star Warz Denude at a 200-seat Fool’s Paradise tent at last year’s Adelaide Fringe.
“I walked out on the stage and it was showtime,” he says.
“I literally was not nervous in the slightest, I just held the stage by myself, I just went for it.
“From there, I’ve gone into burlesque and I’ve won awards in comedy cabaret, burlesque, pole-dancing and aerial. I’ve gone from walking the beat to getting my gear off.”
It’s an arresting shift from the working world Withey occupied for seven years.
Back in 2016, the aspiring teen soccer player – who pursued a professional career in England and trialled with Nottingham Forest before returning to Adelaide and beginning a law degree at the University of South Australia – stumbled across a careers stand for SA Police.
The prospect of immediate work and income appealed to the then 24-year-old uni student and new dad, who joined the SA Police Academy the following year and was sent to the frontline in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
“No one wants to go to the north, the sheer level of crime, the workload and the bullying and mistreatment,” says the now-divorced father-of-two.
“We were the pack mules of the force, we literally had to carry so much work. On average, I had about 38 investigations at any one time. On top of that we had warrants, intervention order servicing, random breath-testing. We had to work on the beat in the city during weekends to help backfill them.
“Everybody was stressed and exhausted and nobody wants to be on the front line ... you are being absolutely destroyed. The amount of coppers – senior officers – that resigned was incredible. And as they walked out, I became more and more senior. At one point, I was the most senior person as a first-class constable. There was a massive experience shortage.”
On top of the workload, Withey was dealing with the stress of three life-and-death incidents.
Before his encounter with the knife-carrying gang member, he found himself in two similarly grave situations where he had feared for his life.
The first time, he was confronted by a man armed with a lighter in each hand who had doused himself with gasoline. Withey tackled him to the ground while his partner wrenched the lighters from his hands before he was able to set himself alight. “I can still smell the gasoline,” he says.
Then, a few months later, he was called to an incident where a man with serious mental health issues was threatening to blow up a gas canister at a suburban home. As Withey tried to calm the situation and chatted to the mother of the increasingly agitated man, he launched at the police officer’s hip and tried to wrench his gun from its holster.
“He was screaming ‘we need to kill him, we need to kill him now’, screaming to the devil. I managed to wrestle with him off the couch on to the floor and he was cackling and laughing and trying to bite my hand and I had his head in a restraining hold,” says Withey, who was forced to keep the man pinned down until ambulance officers arrived.
“They took ages to arrive and finally inject him. I can still feel it – the feeling of somebody grabbing your gun stays with you. There’s mechanisms in the holster to stop it from coming out unless you know how to grab it ... but when someone tries to grab your gun, it sticks with you. That was a bad one.”
At the same time, he says, he was being targeted by a bullying co-worker, who incessantly criticised his work, mocked his performance and ridiculed him in front of their colleagues.
Eventually, he “had enough and reported it”.
“I got warned about reporting processes that nothing actually ever happens and you’re just going to make yourself a target,” he says. “And bloody hell, that’s true. He got promoted.”
While on leave, Withey says he saw his own psychologist, who told him he had an adjustment disorder brought on by the alleged bullying and life-and-death incidents and needed time away from work to “digest it and then it would be okay”.
But Withey says his application for stress leave was denied and his bullying allegations rejected by SA Police, who ordered him back to work.
Withey says his request to move divisions was also dismissed and he was forced to return to work at the end of 2023 in the same northern suburbs office as his tormentor.
A few weeks later, while he struggled back on the beat, his partner asked him three questions about his job.
“She looked at me and goes: ‘Do you enjoy it?’ and I said: ‘No, not really any more.’ She goes: ‘Why are you doing it?’ and I said: ‘Honestly, I just keep putting on the uniform and going to work.’
“And she goes: ‘Okay, then if you don’t enjoy it and you don’t know why you’re doing it, why are you willing to die for it and lose a life with me?’ It was just the simplicity of how she asked it and how direct and just cut to the point it was. It hit me like a ton of bricks.”
A spokesperson for SA Police would not comment on allegations that Withey had been returned to his northern suburbs beat, despite a request to transfer away from the man he claimed had bullied him.
In a statement, the spokesperson said: “The wellbeing of our staff is absolutely critical, and SAPOL acknowledges there has been an increase in demand for police services, which places stress on frontline officers.
“It is a reality of policing that officers are often confronted with situations that expose them to danger and a risk of harm. SAPOL acknowledges the often-challenging nature of police work can have long-lasting effects, both of a physical and psychological nature. In addition to ensuring our officers have access to the best equipment and training to perform their duties as safely as possible, SAPOL constantly works to improve resources for its employees to help them manage the effects of exposure to trauma and aims for early intervention programs and assistance to help minimise any long-lasting effects.
“SAPOL provides support for each officer on an individual basis and manages workplace injury claims in accordance with legislative requirements.
“SAPOL has extensive policies and procedures in place that support a workplace that is free from bullying, harassment and discrimination. SAPOL promotes prevention and early intervention as preferred strategies when dealing with inappropriate workplace behaviour, and where an employee exhibits inappropriate behaviour they will be held to account.”
For Withey – who now prefers to use his stage name Andrews and posts under the social media handle @the.lucas.andrews.show – life is marching to a brand new beat.
He is committed to his entertainment career, enthusiastically honing new skills and grasping his opportunities.
“Doors have just opened,” he says.
“It’s like if you’re going the wrong way in the universe there’s roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. But then, all of a sudden, you turn in one direction or someone takes your hand and doors just keep opening. And that’s what it’s been like.
“And it’s been hard, really hard. But the doors have opened.”
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