Kay Alexander grew up idolising her grandma, a police officer during WWII, and now she will be a role model for aspiring cops.
The 46-year-old is the oldest of the four first-year constables who started in the Moreton Police District three weeks ago. They graduated from the academy on Thursday, January 18 with 34 other officers.
Loretta Lester is stationed at Redcliffe station, Pedau Grabbe at Deception Bay and Deb Hill and Ms Alexander at Caboolture.
From the fitness industry to finance, each officer has a varied background.
“I don’t think you fall into it — you make a conscious decision,” Ms Alexander said.
“It was in the back of my mind for quite some time, but being female and having a family as well, I just kept putting it off.
“I always looked up to them and thought they were superheroes.
“Eventually I just went, ‘I’m going to do it’.”
All four have been thrown into the deep end in their first three weeks on duty, with Ms Hill being called out to a code 1 job the first time she got behind the wheel of her patrol car.
Ms Lester, 29, said the thrill of not knowing what to expect was a big lure for becoming an officer.
“The first domestic violence job I went to, I remember the feeling of, ‘wow, I’ve got no idea of what to do’,” she said.
“I was 100 per cent relying on my field training officer — (but) it’s experiences like that, you look back at and you’re learning all the time.
“(On jobs) you’re communicating the whole time about what you might find and how to deal with it.
“So when you get there you’ve got a plan.”
Each officer will spend eight weeks with their field training officer at their stations before graduating.