Every day new detainees arrive at the police station in Den Bosch where Melissa works. The 26-year-old detainee caretaker receives the suspect upon entry to the detention center. “Most of them are here for minor crimes, but the major criminals are also here. Their punishment begins in our cell complex.”
As a little girl, Melissa never imagined she would work for the police. Her dream job was to become a prison probation officer. She wanted to help people who committed a crime. “My father also worked in prison. I’ve been going there since I was little. I can’t explain why, but I find everything in that world so interesting.”
During her social worker training, Melissa did an internship in a detention house and a prison. “When I was 17, after my second day of internship in the PI Vught, I already found out that being a probation officer is not for me. I really wanted to help detainees, but if they don’t want to go anywhere themselves, it quickly ends.”
“I don’t care what they’re in jail for.”
After her education, Melissa applied to the police as a detention officer. “I started doing this work because I am curious about the person behind the crime. I don’t care what they are here for,” explains the 26-year-old. “I try to understand why someone commits a crime. After all, we are all human beings.”
When a new detainee comes in, Melissa basically doesn’t hear why someone has been arrested. “I usually read something about it in the media. For example, someone has been arrested for shoplifting for the third time,” says Melissa. But a story always has two sides. Sometimes I don’t hear that side, but usually detainees bring it up themselves. Sometimes someone has been through a lot and then you have a little more understanding.”
“I treat detainees as they would like to be treated themselves.”
Everyone has prejudices, but Melissa takes them out. “I treat detainees as I would like to be treated myself. With respect.” But she’s still in charge. “People sometimes say that they have to play police at home if the children are annoying. Well, that is sometimes here too,” says Melissa laughing.
She prefers not to use violence, but sometimes there is no other option. “If a detainee hits me or a colleague, you obviously don’t let that happen. Sometimes I’m just five minutes at work and then I can put on a clean shirt again. Because I was covered in blood after a fight.”
“I can’t turn off my gut feeling.”
Despite the annoying things that Melissa sometimes hears or experiences, she always goes home in the evening with a good feeling. “I hang my uniform in the closet and leave my work here with it. If you take something home every day, you won’t be able to keep up with this job.”
But Melissa’s work does affect her private life. “When I walk through the city, I sometimes say to a friend: watch out, there are pickpockets. You can’t turn off that attentiveness and that gut feeling. I am unconsciously always busy with my profession. That is what makes police work so much fun.”
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