Sowing the seeds of empathy
Inspector Allen on stage. Photo by Savannah Van der Niet, TEDx SouthBank.
When Inspector Corey Allen of Oxley Academy applied for a ticket to the February 2016 TEDx talk at South Bank, he thought he was simply joining a long list of people wanting to attend one of the world renowned events. But his letter outlining his background interested organisers so much it earned him not just a seat in the auditorium, but a place on the stage.
The Inspector spent over eight years as Officer-in-Charge of City Station, and through innovative programs focussed on a personal approach to dealing with vulnerable and homeless people, helped change the culture of police.
Inspector Allen, who himself experienced a period of homelessness as a young man, thought spending time building relationships, showing empathy and offering help in a non-crisis context could ease the problems.
“We adopted a more personal country style of policing and targeted trouble spots and low cost accommodation buildings within the division,” Inspector Allen said.
“Funny things started happening. Confrontations, assaults against police and arrests for disobeying move on directions all fell dramatically. First response police were referring people on to support services and feeling good about actually helping people.
“We were still moving people on at night, but we discovered conflict is far less likely if you’ve taken the time earlier to sit down and talk to them and do what you can to help.”
Inspector Allen said the theme of the TEDx talk was ‘#challenge accepted’, with speakers expected to put a challenge out to their listeners.
“Police have always felt empathy, but now they do more than feel it—they act on it. My challenge was for other organisations to take on empathy and act on it. It might be out of the scope of their core business but it makes them better people,” he said.
Watch Inspector Allen’s talk below or visit TEDxSouthBank website here.
