Lieutenant Colonel Claassen joins Sophiatown Police

Sophiatown Police has appointed a Corporate Communications officer, Lieutenant Colonel Julia Claassen.

Lt Col Claassen said that she joined the South African Police Service in 1995 on 9 January when she was 19 years old. She was born in George, Western Cape and did her training at the South African Police Service College in Pretoria West. “It was the first year after the new democratic South Africa, men and women were allowed to train together and did basic and tactical training.This was the year that the force turned into a service,” she added.

She said that when the training was over, they all went back to their different provinces and worked at a station. She had to work in different departments for one month, such as visible policing, support and detective environment just to give her an overview of how the whole system worked. “I preferred the detective services but I was not keen on autopsies,” she laughed.

Lt Col Claassen, however, ended up in communications in 2003. She worked for six years in Oudtshoorn, where she started her career. When she moved, she married her husband who is also a police officer and then got promoted to the rank of warrant officer. “I worked in court for some time as the overall commander of the court and the public relations officer,” she said. She said that she feels the position came at the right time. She learned how to write in a strategic way that allowed her not to jeopardise any investigation.

Lt Col Claassen is passionate about educating and empowering the community. “An educated community is a preventative community, and that is the main aim for the manner that we communicate in the police,” she said.

For the past 10 years, Lt Col Claassen was working at the provincial head office, in corporate communication doing media liaison, marketing, stakeholders relations and internal communication. “Leaving provincial was a God-sent intervention,” she smiled. She said that she was placed at Sophiatown Police to temporarily assist with the media liaison and she hopes to stay permanently. She said that she wants to see how she can enhance the communications department.

She said that everywhere she goes, she goes with love, a good heart and looks forward to working in a team. She said that so far she is finding it a little challenging but interesting and that she is determined to see change and that can only start from a person individually. She is all about encouragement and believes that to encourage someone, it has to begin with a positive attitude.

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