Career in Focus: Senior Sergeant Anthony Jenkins

In his day job, Senior Sergeant Anthony Jenkins is responsible for delivering vital emergency management training to police across Victoria, making sure they’re up to speed with best practice when responding to major emergencies.

This skill set also puts Sen Sgt Jenkins in pole position when he’s off the clock and working at some of the most prestigious motor racing events in Australia and across the world.

“I’ve loved motor racing of all kinds since I was about nine when a neighbour of ours at the time, who raced speed cars, took our family to the local speedway,” Sen Sgt Jenkins said.

“I’ve been involved in the motor racing world about as long as I’ve been a cop, and I’d say my work in each has helped me develop skills for the other.”

Sen Sgt Jenkins was “about 19” when he began volunteering as a race official and has been involved in motor sport ever since.

In the more than 35 years since, he has travelled all over Australia and South East Asia to work at major motor racing events, including marshalling at the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix, being clerk of the course at the Sandown 500, and even taking on the race director role for the Ferrari Challenge Australasia.

“It’s all volunteer work, so there’s no pay involved, but I love being involved in the industry in any way I can,” he said.

Driven to excel

Sen Sgt Jenkins was building his police career at the same time he was building his experience in the racing industry, having joined Victoria Police in 1989 and taken on his first official roles in motor racing in 1990.

He even credits his police career for fast-tracking his development in the racing industry early on.

“Like in most industries, you work from the ground up, starting with working at flag points and things like that,” Sen Sgt Jenkins said.

“Early on in my career, I worked at Police Communications (D24), and when people in the racing industry learnt this, I got pulled in to do some high-level work in what’s called race control, which is basically being in charge of coordinating the response agencies for when there are accidents or incidents.

“From there, I just kept progressing and now do the major roles of clerk of the course and race director regularly at major events.”

In these higher official positions, Sen Sgt Jenkins is often responsible for coordinating race control, managing officials, and ensuring every element of the event runs smoothly.

These roles demand knowledge, decisiveness, and the ability to lead a team under pressure, skills Sen Sgt Jenkins had fine-tuned in his police career.

“You learn very early on as a police officer how to stay calm in highly stressful situations,” he said.

“But more than that, particularly with my extensive emergency management experience, knowing how to implement a good command structure is a huge benefit.”

Building emergency management expertise

After spending the first 26 years of his career working in various roles throughout Melbourne’s western suburbs, Sen Sgt Jenkins moved into Victoria Police’s State Emergency Response Coordination Division (SERCD) in 2016.

SERCD’s role is to ensure all emergency management activities and functions that Victoria Police is responsible for are undertaken, which includes providing training to police members and advice to relevant agencies, services and government departments.

“Even though I’ve spent 10 years with SERCD, emergency management has been a space I’ve worked in long before that,” Sen Sgt Jenkins said.

“I had a supervisor when I was at Altona North who was really involved in the emergency management space, and he took me along to a training exercise at the oil refinery in Altona.

“The scenario-based exercise was a hypothetical response to an explosion at the refinery, and all the emergency services were involved, and I remember thinking ‘This is an area I want to work in’.”

From there, he took on regional emergency management roles in the Police Service Areas he worked in, even completing an advanced diploma in emergency management in 2009.

A leader in two fields

Since moving to SERCD, Sen Sgt Jenkins has been instrumental in developing several organisation-wide emergency management training packages and guides, from evacuation and wildfire response training to the official Victoria Police Emergency Management guidebook.

SERCD Superintendent Simon Stevens said Sen Sgt Jenkins is considered an expert in the emergency management space, and many of the major reforms to Victoria Police’s emergency management response in recent years have had major input from Sen Sgt Jenkins.

“His knowledge in the emergency management space is amazing and, because of his work, members across the state are regularly getting really high-quality training in the command-and-control processes required to keep their communities safe in major incidents,” Supt Stevens said.

And it’s not just in his policing career that Sen Sgt Jenkins is recognised by his peers as an expert in his field.

At a pre-event for the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix, Sen Sgt Jenkins was named the 2025 Victorian Motorsport Official of the Year, along with being honoured with a service award for his dedication and commitment to the industry for more than 35 years.

“Between policing and the motor racing industry, I’ve gotten to be involved in some pretty big events and there are far too many highlights to choose a top one,” he said.

“But these awards are pretty special. To be recognised in this way for work that I enjoy so much - I don’t even see it as work - it’s really humbling.”