Zen Mohamad Kassim vividly remembers her first day training with the Western Australia Police in 2008.
She was the only woman in the room wearing long sleeves and a hijab.
"The majority were of course white young men and women," she told Hilary Smale on 720 ABC Perth[3].
She moved to Perth to join the force after 18 years' service in Singapore.
"In 2007, the WA Police actually came over to Singapore to do recruitment," she said.
"That's when I put in my application.
"It's was not intimidating for me but it was so different from when I was a police officer back in Singapore," she said of her first day training.
"People around me there looked like me, but over here I am totally d ifferent."
She is now a senior constable and multicultural engagement officer with the WA Police.
Teaching migrants to trust
She works mostly with recently arrived migrants and refugees in Perth to encourage them to trust the police.
And for her efforts Senior Constable Kassim recently received an Outstanding Individual Achievement Award at the WA Multicultural Recognition Awards.
She said many migrants and refugees were afraid of the police because in many of their countries of origin the police can be aggressive, unapproachable and sometimes ask for bribes.
"I can tell the multicultural community that the police here are friendly, we are sincere in whatever we do and we are approachable," she said.
"I tell people, 'you can walk into any police station or call the police and they will render assistance'."
Senior Constable Kassim said she found helping migrant women who were victims of domestic violence particularly rewarding.
"They live in isolation; they are afraid to tell someone and approach the police, and they don't know where to go or what to do," she said.
Call for more multicultural officers
Senior Constable Kassim said she believed the outreach work she was doing was making a real difference.
"More women from migrant communities have opened the door and started reporting incidents of domestic violence," she said.
But she said the force must continue to recruit more people from diverse backgrounds like hers.
"If the WA Police don't recruit more officers from a multicultural background I can see a disaster," she said.
"If an incident happens involving someone from a migrant background, at least if we have police officers from that background then it will be easier for us to solve that issue.
"We can be more culturally sensitive because we know that culture and religion."
