Women in the AFP - Kylie Ford, Counter Terrorism, Jakarta
"Dealing with people who have been directly affected by such traumatic events is challenging and emotional, but very rewarding," Kylie said.
"Some things will always stay with me, like walking over the crater at the gates of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta after a bomb was activated and meeting the Indonesian security guard who lost his sight and suffered other injuries trying to stop the vehicle."
Kylie was also involved with investigations after the second Bali bombing and will never forget accompanying victims as they revisited the Jimbaran Bay bombing site to lay a wreath. She also attended the court trials of those arrested and charged with the attack.
Now based in Jakarta, Kylie is the only female in a team of eight AFP officers working closely with the Indonesian local police on counter terrorism and high tech crime investigations.
"It is definitely challenging being a female working in policing in a Muslim country and a high security environment. But I have a good working relationship with the Indonesian police and am enjoying doing the job at hand."
Kylie has packed a lot into six years in the AFP, working on operations in Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin, as well as stints in uniformed policing and at AFP Headquarters in Canberra. "I didn't expect the responsibilities and opportunities so early in my career, but there's such a huge variety of work in the AFP," she said.
Kylie received a Commissioner's Citation for her people smuggling work where she played a key role in gathering information on people smugglers during interviews with Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers.
"You can't help being touched, hearing their stories," she said.
Thanks largely to evidence collected during more than 200 interviews, nine people were convicted of offences under the Migration Act.
Some of the other highlights of Kylie's career include family liaison duties during the Douglas Wood kidnapping in Iraq, being part of an 18-month drug investigation which resulted in preventing a yacht from importing cocaine to Australia, and being in the incident command centre after the Bali and London bombings.
She is also proud of the work she has done in Indonesia assisting in the development of the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation—aimed at developing international expertise in dealing with transnational crime.
Kylie hopes to continue being part of the larger international effort to make Australia and the region a safer place.