BORN AND RAISED in Logan City, Logan District Chief Superintendent Brian Swan this year returned to the police service in his hometown, and he couldn’t be happier to be back.
“I love being back at Logan,” Superintendent Swan said. “I know some people might find that a bit strange.”
Chief Superintendent Swan, who attended St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Woodridge and Kingston State High School, said he had a great childhood in Logan.
“We grew up in Kingston. Mum and Dad bought a house when we were really, really young, and it was very much a different area back then. I can remember when there were no traffic lights on Wembley Road, and Kingston Road was just two lanes.
“We just really enjoyed our time in Logan, growing up here, I always thought it was a great place to live.”
When it came time to choose a career path, Superintendent Swan said the reason he chose to join the police force is simple.
“My dad was in the police, and I just followed in his footsteps,” he said. “He joined the police a little bit later in life, and I was always proud that my dad was a police officer, so for me it was just a natural thing to do.
“I just always wanted to do it, because I had so much respect for what the police stood for, what the police did in the community, so from there it was a natural move.”
Logan District Chief Superintendent Brian Swan
During his time in the force, Superintendent Swan became known for his calmness during intense situations, with one most memorable and recent of those situations being the tragic deaths of mum Hannah Clarke and her three Children at Camp Hill.
“Sometimes it’s difficult, you do get emotionally involved, no matter what anyone says,” Superintendent Swan said. “Particularly early on as a young detective, when you work in the child abuse field, it’s hard to divorce yourself from the cruelty some people inflict on kids when you’ve got your own family.
“But you have to remember that you’re working as someone who is…working to do the best for victims of crime and importantly, our job is to keep the community safe, and I don’t think we should ever lose sight of that.
“Sometimes, you just have to remember that our job here is that we should be doing everything we possibly can to prevent others being harmed and to make sure that people don’t become victims in the future, no matter what the crime might be.”
Despite having seen the worst in humanity over the years, Superintendent Swan still remains positive when talking about the community, especially the Logan City community.
“I worked for a long time in Logan as a detective,” he said. “I think the thing you have to keep remembering is, you do see a lot of the bad in life…but the thing about Logan that I love is that there has always been a strong community spirit here. The community here has always been very resilient and have always supported each other, and I think the reputation that Logan used to get over the years in ways was very unfair.
“We’ve had a lot of great people in this community working hard, a lot of volunteers giving their time to make a better place and a better community. There’s no shortage of people in Logan who just want to see this place be the best possible community, and that never ceases to amaze me.”
Although 2020 has been a tough year for most of the community, some memories of this year have stood out to Superintendent Swan. One of those, is a project he has been involved in with senior leaders in government agencies across Logan and south Brisbane which deals with young criminals who reoffend.
“Some of the work that the team has done over the last 18 months has been fantastic in dealing with youth recidivism,” he said. “One of our projects here in Logan called ‘New Directions’ is a great collaboration between the police, youth justice, child safety, and education in Queensland, where we work together…in coming up with ways to help kids at risk and stop them being sucked into the justice system, and coming up with ways to support, not just them, but their families.”
Superintendent Swan said having worked the Logan station for most of his career, he is happy to be back with the Logan police force who have always been, in his view, innovative, dedicated and leaders in policing.
“I want to take that to another level here,” he said. “I want the Logan community to be really proud of their police, and I want Logan to be the safest city that it possibly can. I know we’ve got a lot of great police officers on the street every day and every night doing just that.
“If anything, the legacy that we want to leave behind, is a safer Logan and a better Logan.”
