Two Victoria Police detectives excel at Middle East police academy

Enduring nine hours of marching in the Middle East’s scorching heat and being shouted at in Arabic by drill sergeants, all while living half a world away from their families, wasn’t what two detectives expected from their Victoria Police careers.

But after completing the six-month Abu Dhabi Police College International Exchange Program, detective senior constables Megan Lewis and Mitch Lording have been left in no doubt that it has made them better police officers.

When they first agreed to take part in the program, which ran from September 2025 to February this year, they had very little idea what they were signing up for.

“I got a phone call from my inspector and he said, ‘There's a great opportunity to do an overseas secondment for six months in Abu Dhabi, but you've only got 20 minutes to let me know what you want to do’,” Det Sen Const Lewis said.

“I had to look up where Abu Dhabi was on Google Maps and saw that it's in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Middle East, which I didn’t know anything about.”

Det Sen Const Lording was given the slightly longer deadline of four hours to make a decision but, similar to Det Sen Const Lewis’s own life circumstances, he was at a crossroads, both personally and professionally.

“I just needed a bit of a circuit breaker and it was a perfect opportunity,” Det Sen Const Lording said.

They eventually discovered the opportunity wasn’t so much a secondment where they would be policing in the UAE, but they would instead be going through the police academy recruit program.

The exchange program placed the two Victoria Police officers alongside 50 other police officers from 33 different countries, who joined about 170 local Emirati recruits in undertaking the six-month officer bridging course at the academy.

This is the first time Victoria Police officers have taken part in the exchange program, with only Australian Federal Police officers doing it previously.

Physically exhausting

Despite being guests of the UAE’s Ministry of Interior (MOI), Det Sen Const Lewis and Det Sen Const Lording were not given any leniency throughout the arduous six-month course.

“It was intense,” Det Sen Const Lewis said.

“We had to wake up at 4am each day and the length of our working days ranged between 11 hours minimum up to a maximum of 17 hours.

“We were only getting about five to six hours’ sleep every day and it was really difficult because it involved a lot of marching, weapons and martial arts training, academic studies, cultural visits and visits to different police stations.

“Some days, we did nine hours of marching in the heat, which meant a lot of blood, sweat, blisters, cuts, rashes and exhaustion.

“They even had an ambulance on standby while we did it.”

Det Sen Const Lording said much of the marching and weapons training was conducted in Arabic.

“They started off translating the instructions for us, so it was gradual, but it hit a point in the course where they said, ‘The translation's stopping now, we just need to get this done’,” he said.

“So that was another thing we had to adapt to and come to terms with.

“While both of us were OK by the end of the course, we had some struggles and some days were harder than others.”

The Aussies shine

Despite the demands of the course, Det Sen Const Lewis and Det Sen Const Lording excelled.

Det Sen Const Lewis finished third in the female cohort for overall grade point average, while Det Sen Const Lording finished ninth overall, and they were both selected as part of a group of nine students to represent the MOI at the World Governments Summit.

Det Sen Const Lording, who works in the Victoria Police Homicide Squad, was recognised early on for his investigative skills, being picked to perform the course’s crime scene management practical scenario for members of the MOI upper management.

Det Sen Const Lewis’ leadership qualities stood out early in the course and she was named as the “Supreme Leader” for the entire student contingent and took on an important conduit role between the group of female students and the course upper management.

“I’ve always wanted to improve my leadership skills and my public speaking skills, so this gave me the opportunity to be able to do presentations and speak up and be confident and be challenged,” she said.

“I was able to lead people from different cultures and backgrounds and it taught me that good leadership is less about rank and more about setting the standard and earning people’s respect.

“It was also great to represent the females and show, especially the local females, that we can run and stay at the same fitness as the men and to show them what they are capable of.

“The local females have never been in that environment before, so I think that was really good for me.”

Beyond the academy

Fitness featured heavily for the Victoria Police pair, not just within the course but in their spare time in the UAE.

“Outside of the academy, Mitch and I completed all the Spartan races, did the Abu Dhabi 10km run and then the Dubai Marathon,” Det Sen Const Lewis said.

“By the end of the Spartan series, a lot of the girls and even the local girls from the course were getting on board.

“We were doing it in big groups and were running through sand dunes for kilometres. It was so hard but it was just an unreal experience.

“One of the female officers from Slovakia messaged me after we got home, saying, ‘Megs, you'd be so proud. I just completed my first half marathon. You inspired me to start running’.

“And a couple of the local Emirati girls have just done their first 5km or 10km runs, which is awesome to know I’ve had a bit of an impact there.”

Det Sen Const Lording had to overcome some fitness hurdles of his own.

“The fitness requirements for the course were based on how many push-ups you could do in a minute, holding a plank for as long as you can and a 2.4km run,” he said.

“Before we left Australia, my fitness was terrible and I was unhealthy, so the run was a big thing for me.

“During the first 2.4km run, I vomited. I did not think I was going to be able to finish and I did it in a time of 14 minutes 58 seconds.

“By the end of the course, I ran it in nine minutes and 23 seconds, with no throwing up, and then managed to run a marathon at the end of the six months.

“From the start of the course to the finish, I lost about 20kg.”

In February this year, the course graduation was held in front of members of the royal family of Abu Dhabi.

“The graduation is massive over there and it was live-streamed to four or five million people,” Det Sen Const Lording said.

“It’s one of their biggest days of the year,” Det Sen Const Lewis said.

“They shut down all the roads for it because police are so well respected there.”

Also in the crowd watching the graduation in Abu Dhabi were Det Sen Const Lewis and Det Sen Const Lording’s families and then-Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam.

Det Ldg Sen Const Lewis has since been invited back to the UAE to help mentor this year’s exchange program participants.

An ongoing impact

When the pair returned to Australia, they were asked to report to Chief Commissioner Mike Bush and his deputies on their experiences and what Victoria
Police could learn from how the UAE does policing.

The connections they made on the course have also proved valuable in their roles back home.

A Homicide Squad colleague of Det Sen Const Lording’s was recently trying to find out the prior criminal history of someone they had charged with murder and who had spent time in the UAE.

Going through the usual channels meant that they may have to wait 12 to 18 months to get the information.

“She asked me if I knew anyone in the UAE and, in less than a couple of hours, I was able to contact the colonel from our course, who put me in touch with the head of Australasia's UAE police network,” Det Sen Const Lording said.

“We facilitated lines of communication and she's now dealing directly with the relevant people over there.”

Det Sen Const Lewis has also seen direct benefits from the course in her role in the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre.

“The experience has definitely made me a better detective,” she said.

“It's given me a broader perspective, more confidence and a greater appreciation for the importance of international partnerships, particularly now that I work in counterterrorism and because there are so many threats and investigations that have an international element.

“Building relationships with international policing partners and understanding how other jurisdictions think about security isn’t just interesting, it has real operational value.

“It has been the best thing I've ever done in my career and probably in my personal life, too.”

Det Sen Const Lording said it also changed his life professionally and personally.

“It has been the best thing that I've ever done,” he said.

“It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time, and it really affected the trajectory of my life in such a positive way.”

“If I had one piece of advice for other members and other people in general, it’d be to put your hand up for opportunities that scare you,” Det Sen Const Lewis said.

“You never know where they’ll take you and you’ll come back with skills and experiences that you simply can’t get by staying in your comfort zone.”