Bendigo senior sergeants Dave Collins and Ian Brooks reflect on 40 years of service

Both were recognised for 40 years of service with a Victoria Police Service Medal at the western region division five's award ceremony.

Senior sergeant Brooks, who heads the Bendigo Highway Patrol unit, said the ceremony was a time of reflection.

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"I look back at all the different things I've done and all the different people I've met and the friendships that I've made ... it's also a really good day for me to see a lot of the other people I work with getting recognised as well," he said.

"Ten years is a long time nowadays to sit in one job and then right up to where Dave and I ended up ... I enjoy it. [This is] also a good sort of downtime, we can have a bit of a relax, have a bit of a break.

"We'll be back out this afternoon doing what we do best, but it's having that downtime and just spending some time around your friends."

Senior sergeant Brooks joined the academy in April 1981 in Geelong, before transferring to Melbourne.

He spent some time working in the sexual offence and child abuse unit before finding his passion of road policing.

"I've got to have a look at a whole different part of this organisation, which is great because there's so many different things you can do," he said.

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He said over his time he's noticed negative driver behaviours creep in, such as people not wearing seatbelts.

"It's probably a little bit more selfish nowadays than it has been," Snr Sgt Brooks said. "People are always in a hurry. They don't want to have to take a break or slow down or everything because we are all very time poor apparently."

However, technology today has seen improvements in road policing, according to Snr Sgt Brooks, such as radars, licence plate detection, and aerial platforms.

"When I first started we were using speedometers and stopwatches over set distances," he said. "[Now] we're able to find more answers, more for the families than anything else that we can say to them we now know what happened."

Senior sergeant Collins said the environment central Victorian police officers worked in made the job easier.

"The closer you are the better you do your work," he said.

"There's a lot of different crime investigation units and uniform in the Bendigo police station and we all work really well together. We work together and we get the job done."

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