In their decades of policing in Canberra, there's one thing the brothers Craft agree about wholeheartedly; there's never been a stranger time to be a police officer than over the past eight weeks of COVID-19.
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And to be effectively promoted at the same time makes it an equally strange turn of events.
Three years apart in age, Adrian and Matt Craft were both declared inspectors in ACT Policing on Wednesday, two of 14 senior officers taking on the revived rank which disappeared from the federal police at the stroke of a pen back in 1988.
ACT police's relatively small number of uniformed officers will be the first to wear the three-crowned epaulettes of the new rank, although their titles will remain as station sergeants. The rank will then be extended across to the federal cohort.
The Craft surname is synonymous with policing in the ACT. Their father, Michael, was given badge number 76 when the Australian Federal Police was created on October 19, 1979 and the first commissioner, Sir Colin Woods, formerly of the London Metropolitan Police, was appointed.
Inspector Michael Craft's brother, Denis, took badge number 165 and served in the federal police until his retirement in 1999.
"Us Crafts are all very much Canberra products; born here, schooled here at Daramalan, played rugby here, policed here and I expect that's how it will be until I shuffle off," inspector Adrian Craft said in his typically no-nonsense manner.
Us Crafts are all very much Canberra products; born here, schooled here ... policed here and I expect that's how it will be until I shuffle off.
- Inspector Adrian Craft
A rugby union representative player for the ACT and destined for the junior Wallabies, at 18 years old, his younger brother, Matthew, didn't make it through the AFP's testing procedures.
"I was pretty young back then and under-prepared for the induction tests. But I revised hard and got accepted with New South Wales police, so that was a good first step," he said.
He served in various NSW districts including Waverley, Frenchs Forest, Queanbeyan and Manly, where he met his wife Alison, who is also a federal officer. He switched to the federal sphere through a lateral training program about 20 years ago so as to return to his home city.
The reviving of the inspector rank in the ACT has had a tedious gestation period if the unspoken "we can't tell you the politics involved" eye-rolling of the two newest appointees is any indication.
Driving the idea since 2008 has been sergeant Harry Hains, one of Canberra's long-serving and best-known officers who retired last year without getting his own red badge and three crowns.
"It probably doesn't mean much to the public out there but getting this rank back in the ACT is a tribute to Harry [Hains] and means a lot to us all," inspector Adrian Craft said.
"It brings us in line with all the other police jurisdictions which makes our job easier and I have to admit, the silverware on the shoulders does look impressive."
The brothers' careers have followed slightly different trajectories but they've both ended back where they want to be, with Matt Craft now heading up the criminal investigations targeting team.
And their advice to anyone planning to join the federal police?
"It's a great career because if you're from Canberra, as we are, you get to work here at home and you have opportunities overseas as well," inspector Matt Craft said.
"But as I tell anyone, it's important to have family support and a strong interest in something else that's quite different from police work. It can be basket-weaving, or sport or whatever as long as it's your thing and you really enjoy it."
