Police officer Cohen Taylor nominated for work in Morawa, bridging the gap between kids and the police force

Cohen Taylor, a proud Noongar Yamatji police officer stationed in Morawa, has been named a finalist for a young achiever award in the field of Indigenous community leadership.

“I don’t do things to get nominated, I am quite appreciative of the fact that someone has nominated and recognised me”, he said.

“I don’t really come from a background of a lot of cheerleading so it does feel good to know that people are cheering for me and supporting me.”

Const. Taylor is in the running for the 7NEWS Young Achiever Award, in the Indigenous community leadership category.

The 23-year-old spoke about the importance of being a role model for children in the community.

Const. Taylor said he wanted the kids to know “everything I’m doing, they can do, too”.

“It’s about spearheading that vision for them. Nothing is too small,” he said.

Const. Taylor said he drew inspiration from a police officer he grew up next door to, who would play basketball with him.

“He didn’t treat me any different,” he recalled.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I thought I was going to be the next biggest thing in basketball and AFL. That didn’t turn out, but I found the cadet program, joined that fell in love with it.”

The Walpole-born police officer added: “I learned more about the history between my mob, and what the uniform represents for black fellas being in the uniform. It meant a lot to my family and to the community”.

The nomination comes after Const. Taylor showed exemplary skills in community engagement during his probationary placement in Morawa. During his time in Morawa, Const. Taylor has organised women’s and men’s basketball teams and facilitated the youth in emergency services program and the Morawa Blue Light unit.

“We went to a school to do a community engagement event, and they asked ‘does everyone know the police’ and the kids said ‘yeah we know Cohen’ so that was a nice feeling. They can look into my eyes and not get scared,” he said.

Const. Taylor enjoys advocacy work, often attending schools as a guest speaker to share his story and bridge the gap between First Nations people and involvement with the police force.