Yesterday, the Ballarat and Moorabool police Divisional Commander notched up 37 years as a member of Victoria Police, having also recently marked four years’ service as the region’s top cop.

With two new police stations scheduled to be built, upgrades to the Dana Street police complex in the works and even more members hitting the streets, all eyes are on the future for local police.

But it’s the past – particularly his first week in Ballarat – which has perhaps shaped Superintendent Allen’s current tenure more than what may come.

On November 19, 2007, his second official day on the job having just transferred from Geelong, a 4am phone call told of 27 miners trapped underground at a Mt Clear goldmine.

This was Superintendent Allen’s “baptism of fire” in Ballarat.

“That’s not your normal run-of-the-mill callout – not what I’ve been used to anyway,” he said. “There’s not too many mines in Geelong.”

The story of the miners’ rescue after five hours underground went national and even international, placing the microscope squarely on the rescue itself, led by police.

“It was a critical incident and the potential for disaster was there – particularly because Beaconsfield (mining disaster) was still fresh in people’s minds,” he said.

“It was a significant police response and fortunately we’ve had no mine entrapments since.”

Since that hectic first week, Superintendent Allen has overseen changes to policing in Ballarat which place a greater emphasis on social justice and involvement in non-traditional policing areas.

“Policing is now about more than just traffic enforcement and catching crooks,” he said.

“The three key areas which I’ve seen (increase) since coming to Ballarat are family violence, our involvement with mental illness and youth crime and disengagement.

“So we look to do the prevention before the harm – that’s our changed role.”