On Waiben in the Torres Strait, the job of policing the island's 3000 locals comes with its pros and cons.
On the one hand, you know practically everyone. On the other, everyone knows you.
"I'm policing my own family," says Acting Sergeant Patricia Pedro.
"It's one of the biggest challenges."
The Bindal Wulgurukaba woman has been on the Queensland Police Force for some twenty years. She's one of "a very small group" of Blak cops in the force.
"We play a very important roll in the service, in building the trust.
"With our mob and and police, because of the long history of police and our people since colonisation, the relationships are still volatile."
Those relationships, and Patricia's work in trying to reframe them, are again the subject of a television documentary, as a second season of 'Our Law' returns to the small screen.
The eight-part series follows both new recruits and old hands, all First Nations, as they navigate the complexities of being an Indigenous officer.
With resentment from their own communities on one side and a stubborn institutional culture on the other, Blak cops can feel the pressure.
"That's putting it lightly," says Patricia.
I'm seen as a traitor wearing this uniform, enforcing the law.
"It's a hard pill to swallow. I've chosen to do this job and I feel there are more advantages in being in the service, helping my people.
"But a lot of my own people don't see it that way."
An uphill battle
The veteran officer is not oblivious to the source of that mistrust.
The long and dark history of the Queensland Police Force's interactions with First Nations people stretches into the very recent past.
In 2022, secret recordings made in a Brisbane watch house were submitted by an officer to a state commission into police responses to domestic and family violence.
Despite community outrage and Queensland Police commissioner Katarina Carroll saying such officers “should not be in the organisation”, there was no punitive action.
It has the most children behind bars in the country, with more than 60 per cent of those under youth justice supervision or in detention identifying as Indigenous in 2021-22.
, and news last week of NSW officers briefing media against a 5-year-old Indigenous boy, relations between officers and First Nations people seem as strained as ever.
Patricia sees herself as a bridge, trying to span the gap of trust and understanding between the two groups.
"I've done a lot of work on Thursday Island since 2010, so I have very strong relationships," she says.
A lot of our people are still very hesitant to come to police for assistance, but I think having people like me, they want to talk to us First Nations officers.
"I am able to understand because I have a deep understanding of the issues of the many issues from colonisation, assimilation, to all the social issues that have affected my people."
Patricia also works in cultural capability training for non-Indigenous officers. The program she developed is now going state-wide.
"I think I do make a difference. I can see it and feel it at the Academy when I deliver the training.
"Because a lot of the recruits are very inquisitive and they want to learn. They've used some of the information, some of the strategies that I've given them to, to be more culturally capable."
But encouraging institutional change is an uphill battle. Patricia says there's still "a long way to go".
"A lot about people don't come to police at all. They only come to police when it's at crisis point.
"I think the more First Nations people we have in this organisation, the better."
'Our Law' premieres on National Indigenous Television (NITV) and SBS on Thursday 9 May from 8.30pm.
