Chair of Crime Stoppers Australia Peter Price reflects on his fascinating career
PETER Price, chair of Crime Stoppers Australia, reflects on the highs and lows of globetrotting life.
Wentworth Courier
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PETER Price was only young when thieves broke into his home in South Africa while his family was inside.
Now 52, the chair of Crime Stoppers Australia would rather not mention what happened that day.
“Growing up there I was a victim of crime all the time like everybody else,” Price said, speaking from his Dover Heights home.
“You couldn’t not be. You get used to that kind of adversity and you become immune to it.”
Today, Price is the head of Australia’s biggest crime prevention organisation, but the journey there was an unlikely and fascinating one.
Like every young South African white man in the 1980s, Price started adulthood by spending more than two years in the military.
He was assigned to the specialised signal intelligence unit after he declined a position in the military police.
Although he has a deep admiration for police officers, it’s an occupation he never fancied.
“I saw things that I wouldn’t wish upon anybody,” Price, a father of three, said about his time in the army.
“We were taught how to speak Portuguese because that was the language that we were monitoring — terrorists used to speak it.
“I came across things and saw things that scar you for life and you do get mental scars.
“Then you realise that sometimes these things are completely out of your control.”
After the military, Price spent a few years studying law before he got bored and switched to a degree in advertising and marketing.
Then, at 25, he left South Africa and moved to London by himself with his prized bicycle.
Once there, he said, it snowed, snowed and snowed some more.
“I just decided that I had enough,” Price said. “I walked into the Australian embassy one day, it was pouring with snow and there was a beautiful poster on the wall with a beautiful beach.
“The poster said: ‘How much longer are you going to say that one day you’ll go to Australia?’.”
That was it. Price paid £50, packed his bicycle and moved to the other side of the world to start a new life.
He continued to work in advertising and opened up his own agency, First Light, which he still runs.
At the time, Westfield was having issues with carpark crime and the company invited Price to a meeting with the police.
Together they developed a signage campaign that still runs in most major shopping centres across the country.
“One day Westfield rang and said there was a position on the board of Crime Stoppers,” Price said. “I said, ‘What’s that?’. I had no idea.”
Price said yes and began his long career in crime stopping.
Through countless hours of hard work, his team nationalised the brand and he was appointed to the board of Crime Stoppers International.
The global organisation operates through its member affiliates in 26 countries.
As you can imagine, Price’s position came with extremely long hours and several challenges.
“I come from a creative background,” he said.
“I found myself continually having mental gymnastics between working in a creative field, and then dealing with law enforcement and government, where everything is so bureaucratic.”
Six days a week, Price wakes up at 4am and doesn’t stop until late in the evening.
If he’s not trying to catch wanted terrorists around the world, he is coming up with witty campaigns to reduce crime in our suburbs.
This week, he also celebrated NSW Crime Stoppers Day.
Then there are the four months a year Price spends overseas for meetings at the White House and speeches at the United Nations.
In between, he tries to fit in a few bicycle rides and time with his wife and teenage children.
One day in 2013, everything dramatically stopped.
“Back from Interpol in France and I got really sick,” Price said.
“I ended up in emergency and it nearly killed me.”
As a result — and still to this day — Price must travel with oxygen on long haul flights.
He soon realised his long hours were taking a toll on his personal life and announced his retirement from Crime Stoppers International in May last year.
A week later, he was diagnosed with a stage-three melanoma.
“That was a significant moment for me,” Price said.
“When you look at my life, I was running pretty fast — I was working 15 hours a day.
“All of a sudden the rug got pulled out from underneath me and everything just stopped.”
Price spent nine months off work and was in and out of hospital for surgeries.
To his relief, the cancer was cleared in November last year.
Price is now back at work and doing enormous hours, but he has taken time for personal challenges, including one close to his heart.
“I’ve been preparing to ride in Israel in June,” he said.
“Israel was banned from the Olympics for a long time so they set up their own; they’re called the Maccabiah Games.”
“Price will represent Australia, the nation that awarded him a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 and appointed him a Member of the Order this year. It’s an honour that shocked Price.
“I would have never dreamt that in my life,” he said.
Despite the prestigious recognition, Price is not resting on his laurels.
Crime is quickly evolving and his creativity is needed more than ever.
Price will keep riding and overcoming every obstacle life throws at him.
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But deep inside, he has learnt an important lesson.
“You’re not bulletproof, although you’d like to think you are,” he said, looking at smiling photos of his family on his stairwell’s walls at home.
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