Family faithfully serving the community

Following family into a career at Victoria Police is a fairly well-worn path, but the Jung family’s story is far from commonplace.

Jim Jung is a senior chaplain with Victoria Police and, as part of the chaplaincy network, provides pastoral and spiritual care to employees across the state.

“I first started as a volunteer chaplain (at Victoria Police) in 2011 after a friend suggested I challenge myself with community volunteering,” Jim said.

“I looked after the Kingston Police Service Area in Melbourne’s south east, providing the chaplaincy service to five stations.”

It was this introduction to the organisation that inspired his two sons, Nicholas and Ashley, to become police officers.

Nicholas, now a detective leading senior constable at Mornington Peninsula Crime Investigation Unit, was the first to join in 2014 after getting some valuable insights into the job through his dad’s work.

“Dad was definitely a big part of my decision to join,” Nicholas said.

“He knows me better than most other people, and I got a behind-the-scenes look at the job from the members at the stations where he volunteered.

“He actually encouraged Ashley and I to join for a while before I signed up. He said he thought we had the right skills and that we would suit Victoria Police and vice versa.

“I was the first to make the choice to join but, I think, from those early conversations with Dad, Ashley and I both knew we’d both probably end up in the job.”

A valuable perspective on policing

Ashley, now a sergeant at Dandenong Police Station, said while his dad didn’t have on-the-ground the insight into the policing world, Jim’s chaplain role has proved to be an invaluable support.

Ashley, now a sergeant at Dandenong Police Station, said while his dad didn’t have boots-on-the-ground experience, his chaplaincy work gave him a good grasp of the challenges faced by police.

“Dad, through his role, had really great insights into the welfare side of things and exposure to what members are dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” Ashley said.

“When we were junior members coming up through the ranks and we’d experience some of those challenging things, he was a fantastic sounding board.

“He had this unique position of being able to provide advice from a few steps back, not being on the frontline himself, but sharing insights he’d built over several years from many members.

“To this day, he continues to be that sounding board for both of us.”

In 2017, Jim was the final member of the Jung family to join Victoria Police in a full-time capacity, switching his volunteer role for that of a senior chaplain.

“I realised that I was enjoying my work with Victoria Police more than the other work I was doing external to the organisation, so when the opportunity to join as a senior chaplain came up, I jumped at it,” Jim said.

Understanding the challenges

Having been the chaplain assigned to support members and their families in the wake of traumatic incidents, Jim has a unique view of the challenges that come with the career path his sons have chosen.

“I always say that there are two overriding emotions that families have with regards to their children or loved ones joining Victoria Police,” Jim said.

“Firstly, immense pride that they're prepared to be a small group of people who decide to protect our communities.

“And with that does come the other emotion, anxiety that they're running towards the things everybody else is running away from.

“But I see firsthand the protections – both physically and mentally – the organisation provides and I know they’ve chosen this job, so the pride definitely outweighs the anxiety.”

While the Jungs all credit each other with providing advice and insight in their jobs, their paths have actually crossed very little during their Victoria Police careers.

“While we go to Dad for advice all the time, neither of us have had to call on his services for any official work business,” Ashley said.

And although the brothers have never worked together at the same station, Nicholas said they had “bumped into each other from time to time, and we even had one job where we were both looking for the same offender”.

“We do receive emails meant for each other from time to time – there’s not a heap of Jungs in the job so we do sometimes get each other’s emails,” Nicholas said.

Editorial and photography Danielle Ford

Subscribe to Police Life: Our people, our stories

Get real police stories delivered straight to your inbox. Come behind the scenes and get a rare insight into the life and duties of Victoria Police's workforce of more than 20,000 dedicated people.

Subscribe to Police Life

Email policelife-mgr@police.vic.gov.au to unsubscribe at any time.

To find out more about our privacy policy and how we store information, visit our Privacy page.