Leading senior constable Melanie Economidis juggles being a mum of four with her fast-paced job as a forensic fingerprint technician with the Queensland Police. As Mother’s Day approaches, she speaks to reporter Resa Zekants-Griffin.
Logan Village’s Melanie Economidis has been a police officer for 20 years and recently transferred into the forensics field where she specialises in fingerprint science and identification.
“My favourite part of the job is that I get to solve crime in real time and really make a difference for victims of crime.”
Ms Economidis said in the job, every day was different.
“Every day is different for me, some days my role is fingerprint examination of crime scenes using advanced chemical development and enhancement techniques to locate offender’s fingerprints,” she said.
“Other days I might be working in a lab undertaking examinations of exhibits for major crimes or on a computer doing digital fingerprint identifications and providing capability for officers while they are still at a scene.”
Ms Economidis has three boys aged 9, 10, 17 and a daughter who is 14 and said it was sometimes hard to get the right balance between work and parenting.
“In my first few years it was really difficult as my children were quite young and my role entailed shift work and unexpected overtime so because of this I ensured that my kids had a good stable routine,” she said.
“There were definitely struggles with balancing it all when my kids were younger and there still is sometimes.”
“Having four children means that there are lots of school, extra-curricular and sporting events that I need to juggle along with shift work, but I am lucky that my specialised field has some flexibility which helps.”
Ms Economidis said it took a village to raise children and being a working mum was “very possible”.
“I have attempted to build a supportive community around me so that I have people that I can rely on when things get tough,” she said.
“We aren’t meant to do this motherhood thing alone, so speak up if you need help as we are all in the same boat when it comes to raising kids.”
“I am thankful for friends, neighbours, my mother and my wife that help me do what I do.”
Ms Economidis is planning on doing further studies in the field of fingerprints in the future.
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