Top cop Darren Hine the face of a more caring force

PATRICK BILLINGS talks to Tasmania’s Police Commissioner Darren Hine about his reappointment for another five years.

Police Commissioner Darren Hine in his office at Police Headquarters in Hobart. pic Sam Rosewarne

A NEAR fatal bike accident nearly 40 years ago was a watershed moment for Tasmania’s top cop.

Lying on the road almost dead, the then 15-year-old Darren Hine had an interaction with police that was burnt into his memory.

“I remember lying on the road and this very kind sergeant put his hat under my head. His name was Jock McJannet,” Hine told the Mercury in his first major interview since being reappointed Police Commissioner last month for another five-year term.

“I thought: ‘What a kind man’ and thought police officers are about caring and helping in times of crisis. That was certainly an influence on me.”

That he was set on becoming a veterinarian before the crash is also telling about what motivates the man.

In what is likely to be a hallmark of his career, Commissioner Hine has taken a very public stance against family violence.

The father of two is a White Ribbon ambassador and was Tasmania’s pick for the Federal Government’s Advisory Panel to Reduce Violence against Women.

As a 35-year veteran of pol­icing, Darren Hine has seen sweeping changes within the service. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

In a candid press conference this year, Mr Hine drew a line in the sand against the scourge that requires his officers to attend 50 domestic violence incidents a week.

The stance helped build a momentum that put family violence at the front and centre of the Tasmanian conversation.

Sitting in his top-floor office at Police Headquarters in Liverpool St, 52-year-old Mr Hine recites another anecdote, this time to explain his position on domestic violence.

“I remember as a kid living near a home where there’d always be arguments and things smashing and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, what are they doing?’ I’d see the lady involved and I used to think, ‘What are you having to put up with?’ ”

DARREN HINE: WHEN A HOME IS FAR FROM SWEET

The arguments and violence that were hidden behind his neighbours’ walls as a child growing up at Smithton bec­ame a confronting reality when he worked as a constable in Burnie.

“I’ve seen the effects of family violence on women and children. And when you see it, you can’t help be affected and want to make a change. In the job I currently do, I can hopefully influence the way police deal with it and hopefully I get a message out to the community as well. I can do more as a father — I’ve got two boys — I can influence them.

“The days where we could stand by and put up with jokes about women and those sorts of things are gone and we need to stand up and start to challenge some of those behaviours that men have.”

Mr Hine joined the force through the now disbanded police cadet system aged 17 in February 1980. Graduating in December 1981, he was posted on the Burnie watch for 18 months before a transfer to traffic policing. After three “good” years there, he transferred to Launceston CIB, then made sergeant in the capital before climbing to commander, or superintendent as it was known then.

---

I’ve seen the effects of family violence on women and children. And when you see it, you can’t help be affected and want to make a change.

---

By 2008, he was deputy commissioner and later that year stepped into the role of acting commissioner after the controversial exit of Jack Johnson.

“I suppose when you’re thrust into a job under those circumstances, you always want to do the best you can,” he said.

“I certainly wanted to make sure I provided an environment for people to be able to do really good work and provide the services that we needed to.”

As a 35-year veteran of pol­icing, he has seen sweeping changes within the service.

“You have to embrace that change and you’ve got to change with the community attitudes and change to what a community expects of a police service,” he said. “The culture has changed a lot. What the police service has tried to do is hold on to the really good things and jettison the not so good things of policing.

“We’ve certainly became more professional, we’ve become far more accountable.”

Any police career spanning as long as his is peppered with tragedy, but in Tasmania it happened to encompass what was then the world’s worst massacre.

To this day Mr Hine is rel­uctant to discuss Tasmania’s darkest hour at Port Arthur out of respect for the victims.

“That’s a time in history where we can all actually pinpoint where we were at the time we first started to hear about it. It rocked the community. I was part of the negotiation team that had to go down,” he said.

“I don’t like to talk about it too much because I know there’s still people suffering and it’s a matter for the community to talk about it when they are ready.”

Looking forward, outlaw motorcycle gangs continue to be a major focus for the commissioner.

He said he didn’t want Tasmania to become the “soft underbelly of crime” by being out of step with national efforts to strike at bikies.

“We will unashamedly continue to target them,” he said.

As for another term as commissioner, he believes it will be time to hand in the badge after this latest stint.

“I think after two terms the organisation needs a fresh set of eyes and a different leadership,” he said.

“You never say never, but my own thoughts and feelings are there’s opportunity for someone else.”