General News
5 June, 2025
Service runs in the family
ARARAT based Constable Emily Haywood recently marked a special moment in her policing career just six months into the job, teaming up with her father for a day of service in Ararat.
As part of National Walk to School Day, Emily, who began her posting in Ararat in December, had the rare opportunity to bring her dad, Sergeant Gerard Haywood, to work.
“I just approached the bosses here, posing it as a question. I didn’t want to take too many members off the road, but thought, ‘What’s the possibility of Dad coming along?’ I knew he had the day off,” Emily said.
With Sergeant Haywood clocking more than three decades in the police force, his proud daughter said her father has been a constant role model.
“He’s had hard days and good days, but 33 years in a career. That's what I aspire to, to stick around in a job for that long. You hear some stories from him, but he's always had the support of his colleagues,” she said.
The stars aligned, rosters were arranged, and the father-daughter duo took part in the school walk initiative and even attended a few local incidents together.
While the experience was rewarding, it came with one awkward adjustment.
“I didn’t know whether to call him Dad or Sergeant,” Emily said.
“He was out the back, and I yelled out ‘Dad’, then I thought, oh, should I say Sergeant? But he responded. I wasn’t going to call my dad Sergeant Haywood unless we were interacting with the public.”
Emily said at times their shared surname often went unnoticed by others.
“We’d introduce ourselves as Constable and Sergeant Haywood, and sometimes people picked up on it, other times it just went straight over their heads. Even though we introduced ourselves, dad being a Sergeant, he would kind of stepped back and let me handle things too, which was really was encouraging,” she said
The day was not only meaningful but also a learning opportunity for both father and daughter.
“He was a bit nervous, I think, just because I’m his daughter first, not his colleague.
In the beginning he said, ‘I’ll drive, you can scribe,’ since all the tech stuff is quite new. So it was it was a learning experience for both of us. Which was a part I hadn't even thought about that we'd be able to do. I’d love the chance to do it again before he retires,” Emily said.
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