For Queen and country

The new officer-in-charge of Geraldton Police Station — whose career has included dignitary protection for Hillary Clinton, Kevin Rudd, the Queen and Prince Harry — has put burglaries, domestic violence and antisocial behaviour on top of his priority list.

Senior Sergeant Jason Scragg, 49, moved to Geraldton from Perth earlier this month, replacing former OIC Sen. Sgt Brad Bird, who left the role in December.

According to 2017 State statistics, the Mid West – Gascoyne Police Family and Domestic Violence Response Team attends 234 family violence incidents a month.

From last July to now, WA Police have recorded more than 5000 burglaries and stealing offences in the region.

“Some of the biggest issues I would like to tackle while I’m here is antisocial behaviour, so getting more police out there and more police seen,” Sen. Sgt Scragg said.

“Family and domestic violence, that’s a big one for me too, and the burglaries and stealings; I’ll be working closely with our volume crime teams on those.”

Sen. Sgt Scragg began his policing career in the late 1980s and has since held a variety of roles, including working in a care team for sick and injured officers, protecting multiple household names in dignitary protection and conducting police audits.

Sen. Sgt Scragg said he has regularly visited Geraldton and the larger Mid West in previous years to make the police stations more efficient and he fell in love with the landscapes.

“I used to work in back-of-house admin, where I went into police stations and identified areas of weakness alongside other OICs,” he said.

“I’ve been to Geraldton four or five times, to Yalgoo, to Kalbarri and Northampton and Jurien Bay.

“I fell in love with the area and I’ve always wanted to run my own police station, so when an opportunity came up here I went for it.”

To become familiar with the community, he will use his lunch breaks to pop into local businesses and speak with locals.

He is also frequently at Wonthella’s PCYC Thursday night program to engage with at-risk youth and former offenders.

Outside of his job, Sen. Sgt Scragg intends to become involved in local sport, in particular beach volleyball. Policing has been his lifelong career.