AFTER recently calling time on his 43-year career with the South Australian Police (SAPOL), Limestone Coast Police officer in charge Superintendent Grant Moyle hopes to be remembered as a “very efficient, capable and fair” police officer.
For just over two years, Supt Moyle has held the top job in the Limestone Coast local service area after taking over from Trevor Twilley in 2016.
When he enters retirement late next month, Supt Moyle said he would walk away proud of what has been achieved by the Limestone Coast Police during his tenure.
“We have been very fortunate that overall we have been able to see the incidence of reported crime reduce consistently over the years I have been here and that is following on from some very good results before I arrived,” Supt Moyle said.
While expressing an overall satisfaction with his time working in the Limestone Coast, Supt Moyle said there were a number large-scale incidents that presented challenges.
“We have had major marine searches, a very tragic plane crash – so there has been quite a variety of work and there are always challenges among incidents like those,” he said.
“While you do not always get a good result as far as finding people lost at sea or when we were dealing with the air crash, for us it is about being confident the emergency services have done everything they can to assist.
“With incidents like that you are operating at short notice, so you have to swing into action and do your job, which can be stressful, but at the end of the day it is very rewarding.”
Thanking the community for their support during his time at the helm, Supt Moyle said he always aimed to act in their best interests.
“We have tried to do the best we can with the resources we have and I have always been one that tries to make sure – first and foremost – we provide an excellent police service to the community,” Supt Moyle said.
“I am very happy to be able to say we have been able to increase the staffing level by a total of six people and the latest one will be the addition of an operations inspector.”
Supt Moyle said the operations inspector would provide enormous support to the new superintendent when they step into the role.
“The operations inspector will provide great help in the area of emergency management in particular, but also have a focus on operational matters, allowing the superintendent to address some higher level strategic issues,” he said.
Looking back on his 43 years at SAPOL, he highlighted the change in operations since he first started with the rapid development of technology.
“You go to back when I first graduated where we had manual typewriters and now we have got tablets in each car and we have got mobile phones – we never had them,” he said.
“How we use and exploit technology to help us fight crime and do our job more efficiently is quite significant.
“We can now park a police car on a vacant block and provide the same service that we can out of the police station.”
Reflecting on his career, Supt Moyle said he would walk away “satisfied” with how he applied himself to the job.
“It has been a magnificent 43 years, that’s for sure, I really enjoyed the operational side of it and it was always what I wanted to do,” he said.
“I am leaving the job satisfied that I have done the best I can.”
Now the journey has almost come to an end, Supt Moyle said he was now looking forward to dedicating more time to his family.
“Over the years I have made a lot of sacrifices and sometimes those sacrifices have been time spent with family,” Supt Moyle said.
“It is about time I changed my priorities to make sure we can spend more time together and take advantage of my retirement years.”
