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Kerrie Trigwell: WA’s longest serving female cop celebrates 48 years in the force

When Kerrie Trigwell joined the WA Police Force almost five decades ago, her uniform included a handbag, pantyhose and high heels. “When I graduated from the academy, we had the lovely light blue dress, the pantyhose, the high-heel shoes, and carried our handbag,” she recalled. “And if they told me that I had to wear pink and purple polka dots, I would’ve worn it, because I always wanted to be a copper.” That determination led Sen. Const. Trigwell to a 48-year and 48-day career with WA Police, making her the longest serving female officer in the force’s history. Speaking to The West Australian to commemorate her well-earned retirement, the veteran officer — known to colleagues as “Trigger” — reflected on a near five decades in law enforcement, saying the policing had come a long way since she followed in the footsteps of her father and sister in the late 1970s. “It was not far off my fifth birthday, and I wanted to be a policeman like Dad. Mum used to reinforce that I could be a policewoman, but not a policeman,” she said. “But I wanted to be like Dad, and that’s the only job that I really ever wanted to do.” First joining as a cadet in April 1978, aged 16, before graduating from the academy in December 1980, Sen. Const. Trigwell’s first official posting was as a uniformed officer in East Perth. She estimates there were only 75 sworn female WA Police officers at the time. “Times have changed,” she said. “For part of the time I was there, I was the only female on shift. . . sometimes there were two of us.” In years that followed, Sen. Const. Trigwell moved into a roving plain-clothes unit, described as combined operations, where a small team attended jobs that included “a guy going mad in Scarborough with a tomahawk”. Then she ended up at Fremantle Police Station around July 1982, where she helped relieve officers on Rottnest Island. That’s where her handbag accidentally got put to use during the arrest of a man who refused to stop street drinking. “I tried to put him down on the ground — and I’m winning — and then my handbag falls down off my arm and hits his head,” she said. “We locked this guy up and then he was going off, claiming that I assaulted him with my handbag. “He said he would make a complaint . . . and was a complaint ever made? No.” After Fremantle, Sen. Const. Trigwell was posted to Brentwood Station and then South Hedland. By this point, general duty officers were starting to carry guns, instead of storing them in the glove box of police cars. She was then offered a career-altering opportunity — relieving at a “one-man” (or one-person as she put it) station. A newspaper article published eight weeks into her stint at Goldsworthy police station showed the community was already growing fond of her efforts. “When police constable first class Kerrie Trigwell took over the reins of the Goldsworthy police station eight weeks ago many of the locals thought she would be a pushover,” the article read. “But they were wrong. Constable Trigwell has proved to the town that she is just as capable as any other officer at running a police station.” She is believed to be the first woman in WA Police history to be handed the reigns of a solo station. In the late 1980s, Trigwell became one of the original eight community policing officers before moving into an intelligence officer role at the drug support unit. After a stint in recruitment she found herself at Crime Stoppers, which had only just started taking calls. That’s where she played a part in fielding public tip-offs and raising awareness about some of the State’s most horrific crimes. “I was at Crime Stoppers when Gerard Ross was abducted and murdered in 1997, and one of the sergeants used to do all the dealings with Channel Nine and The West. They wanted to do a re-enactment and he needed two boys . . . funny that, my next-door neighbours’ kids looked very similar (to Gerard Ross and his brother). “There was none of this disclosure and everything these days . . . I picked them up and brought them into work. “Afterwards, both boys became fully aware of what could happen.” Gerard, an 11-year-old boy from Newman, disappeared while on a family holiday in Rockingham on Tuesday, October 14, 1997. Two weeks later he was found brutally murdered and dumped in the Karnup pine plantation in Baldivis. Police have never found his killer. The re-enactment featuring Gerard Ross walking and his brother rollerskating away from a Kent Street property is still broadcast by media outlets today. A $1 million reward is in place for information that leads to the identification and conviction of his killer. Sen. Const. Trigwell said she barely slept during the early stages of the investigation into the disappearances of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon from the streets of Claremont — around 20 years before police made an arrest. “It was full on. There was not much sleep in the first few weeks,” she said. “Then there were more and more calls when all three girls vanished. I was getting home like at one or two in the morning, and being back to work at six or seven.” Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested in 2016 and later charged with the murders of all three women. After a seven-month trial, he was found guilty of the murders of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon, but acquitted of killing Ms Spiers. Her body has never been found. “Whether you were just a call-taker or interviewing the baddie . . . the Spiers family deserves to know,” Sen. Const. Trigwell said. “It’s not a final closure, because we all want to know where Sarah is.” Although an injury stopped Sen. Const. Trigwell from spending the end of her career on the frontline, she served her last years supporting officers attached to Southern Regional Operations Group, who are deployed to volatile riots, dangerous protests and armed offender incidents. “There was something everywhere at WA Police that I always loved and it probably boils down to the people,” she said. “Great workmates, camaraderie, everything like that. I gave myself a little retirement party and had 60 people show up — half were coppers and half were friends and relatives. I love people, and if I meet someone nice, they’re in my friends’ book.” WA Police Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whiteley said officers like Sen. Const. Trigwell were the force’s “greatest assets”. “Long-term retention of experienced officers like Kerrie ensures decades of knowledge, leadership and skills are retained and passed onto the next generation of police officers,” she said. “The commitment and dedication of experienced officers plays a critical role in ensuring we continue to deliver exceptional policing for the community of Western Australia.” Sen. Const. Trigwell will be marched off at the Joondalup Police Academy on September 3.

exclusiveKerrie Trigwell: WA’s longest serving female cop celebrates 48 years in the force

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Kerrie Trigwell: WA’s longest serving female cop celebrates 48 years in the force