Leaving the force with pride

Sgt Calliope Kwas, the first Greek female officer in Victoria Police, retires after 34 years of service


Calliope’s heart yearned for the blue uniform which to her symbolised justice. She was 24 years old when she came to the realisation the police force would be the love of her life.

“I was 24 years of age and still not married, resisting all the arranged match-ups,” Calli Kwas (nee Seitanidis) tells Neos Kosmos.

“I was expected to marry young and have a simple office job like my girlfriends, but much to my parents’ disappointment, I finished high school and started an accountancy degree.”

By joining Victoria Police Calli would finally break away from the stronghold that her mother and the Greek community had imposed upon her with their traditional and old-fashioned expectations, without rebelling or embarrassing them.

“My father was so proud that his daughter had become a police officer, but my mother was ashamed that I had joined a male-dominated work force,” Calli admits.

“She would always worry about what people would think, putting so much pressure on me.”

Her father was a police officer in Greece, but immigrated to Australia in 1961 to give his wife and two children a chance at a better life. They all worked very hard and kept the old fashioned values from their village.

“Prior to joining the force I ran my Jewish boss’ numerous shops and I’d come in contact with police when reporting shoplifters.”

“After that my uncle poached me to take over his florist business in Footscray where police officers walking the beat would call into the shop to say hello every day.”

It wasn’t until Calli had a run-in with their delivery lady who was stealing from the shop that she decided to join.

“After I caught her, the woman went to report me to the police for assault but thankfully the investigation proved she was the offender and I was the victim in this matter.”

“This confirmed my belief that ‘justice will prevail’,” she emphasises.

As the first Greek policewoman in Victoria Police, Officer Kwas was much more of a work ethic trail-blazer and role model for other women and police officers than she admits. Back in the 1980s there were a lot of Greeks who did not speak the English language very well and did not know that the role of the police extended to welfare type issues.

“I felt there was a need to ‘build a bridge’ between the police and the Greek community, so conducted numerous Greek speaking radio programs on SBS and collaborated with Greek newspapers,” she says.

“I spent a lot of time just listening to people’s problems without them fearing that I would ‘air their dirty laundry’ within the Greek community or judge them, particularly for what their children were doing wrong.”

People turned to the Greek policewoman because they had nowhere else to turn for advice on abuse, family violence, drug-related issues, even for the classic speeding tickets.

“Once I got acceptance from the Greek community my mother was proud of my becoming a policewoman,” Calli adds.

“Detectives would also ask for my help with investigations of crimes, whether it be victims, witnesses or offenders of Greek background.”

This proved so successful over the years that the relationship between Victoria Police and the Greek community continued to improve as Officer Kwas was able to get the message across that police do not only attend to traffic and criminal matters, but also welfare issues.

“I would often be called upon to settle industrial pickets and strikes with a large Greek workforce, neighbourly disputes and domestics and once they heard the policewoman speak and explain things in Greek they would be pacified in an instant.”

“When I worked at the Prahran Police Station, I joined a National Crime Authority undercover operation involving Greek drug dealers.”

Many other successful operations followed, explaining her name on an honours board at the Victoria Police Centre for being a recipient of the Police Ethnic Community Award.

Officer Kwas, who started from the Altona North Policewomen’s Division, later named Community Policing Squad in Prahran and Footscray, soon took promotion to sergeant, in the then Appeals & Appraisal Section. She later became the sergeant in charge of the Warrants Unit and took initiative to modify interstate warrants procedures which until then remained a responsibility of the Victorian Police.

Her new warrant classification system released Victoria Police officers to spend more time on operational duties, while she became the only Victoria Police officer performing normal duties and working within the Warrants Unit at the same time.

“I was later put in charge of the ‘Review of the Aged Warrants Project’, tasked to reduce the 25,000 pre-1995 warrants that were ‘filed and forgotten’ at Records Services Department.”

“After cleansing all the data, with VicRoads, Electoral Roll and Births, Deaths and Marriages, I created a user-friendly form to assist investigators in determining whether the old warrant could be executed, refiled or cancelled,” Calli Kwas explains.

For those where there was no likelihood of a successful prosecution or it was not in the public interest to proceed in regards to the nature of offence and the passage of time, amongst other considerations, Kwas was able to organise a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to cancel warrants in bulk.

Superintendent Emmet Dunne, who was in Charge of Prosecutions, praised her work on creating a formal process in place to save extra work on his already overstretched resources across the state.

Kwas moved to the newly formed Equal Opportunity Unit, conducting state-wide training related to sexual harassment and discrimination for the newly-enacted EEO legislation, establishing solid relationships with minority groups.

“There were numerous highlights of my career,” she says, reminiscing about joining the Flemington Racecourse where she got to meet Princess Diana.

“The one I treasure most is meeting the Doughnut Man, 26 years ago.”

When Yiannis Kouros, the famous Greek runner, took part in the Sydney to Melbourne Westfield Run, she was tasked to the Highway Patrol in order to manage the Greeks who were expected to support their compatriot.

Calli was sitting in a yellow highway patrol car, advising all the Greek people to stay off the road, mind the traffic and not to pat Yiannis Kouros on the back as he was running along to the finish line.

“I got total compliance and applause as I was announcing all this in the Greek language in my Victoria Police uniform,” she continues.

“A Greek man selling doughnuts on the day took my fancy and my photos; he kept them and was looking for me for over 20 years.

“I was deeply touched by his gesture and the lengths he went to in his effort to identify and locate ‘the Greek officer lady’,” she says, adding that the people she came across have made her cherish every aspect of her career.

During her 34 years of service to the force, apart from building the first bridge with the Greek community and fostering good relationships with minority groups through the Equity & Diversity Unit, Kwas also contributed to the establishment of Neighbourhood Watch Programs.

“It entails a good sense of achievement to know that I was a pioneer of so many things and even though I just retired my wish is to maintain my connection to Victoria Police and remain an active member,” she stresses.

Kwas has joined the Blue Ribbon Foundation and will help with the organising of the Blue Ribbon Ball in November this year. In addition, she will also contribute to the Police Museum and the International Police Association whilst promoting the interests of the Past and Present Women Police Association.

“Every day I walked from Southern Cross Railway Station to the VPC, thinking how lucky I was to have my health, my beautiful family and to live in one of the best countries in the world,” she says.

“I still relive these moments every day in my mind, thankful of the privilege to have worked for the best employer, Victoria Police. It couldn’t get any better than that.”