IE BUSINESS Community policing at its best owhere else in Australia ACT Region members provide a \ is the AFP so visible and full range of community policing services and have a proud tradition of _______ so directly in contact community involvement. with the members of the Encouraging community input, community than it is in the ACT Region has maintained a flexible attitude towards the methods Australian Capital Territory. In employed to maintain the peace and providing a traditional community to protect Canberra’s community. policing service, ACT Region Policing in the ACT is divided into Belconnen District, City District, members encounter challenges that Woden District, and Tuggeranong their fellow AFP officers in other District with police stations at Civic, regions may seldom face. Never- Canberra’s central shopping precinct, at Belconnen Town Centre in the the4ess, ACT Region members are north, Woden Town Centre in the experiencing the same change inner south and Erindale in the far process as the rest of the AFP. south. The administrative regional headquarters is located in the Winchester Police Centre, Deputy Commissioner Jim Allen is assisting Belconnen. Commissioner Palmer in the day-to-day ACT Region has proved management of ACT policing. innovative in community policing, being among the first Australian and strategically placed police police to introduce Neighbourhood shopfonts. In recent times the region Watch, Rural Patrol, bicycle patrols, has introduced Diversionary Conferencing which provides minor offenders and their victims resolution options outside the court system and Country Town Policing which locates a police officer within suburban communities as a first point of contact on non-urgent police matters. On April 18, 1995, the Chief Police Officer for the ACT since 1991, Assistant Commissioner Peter Dawson, retired from the AFP after 35 years of police service. As a result, Commissioner Mick Palmer assumed the responsibilities of the Chief Police Officer for the ACT. Commissioner Palmer is assisted in the day-to-day management of ACT policing by Deputy Commissioner Jim AFP uniformed police and plain-clothes detectives service the community policing needs of Allen. the people of the Australian Capital Territory. These are interim arrangements to No. 48 - September 1995 29 enable the Commonwealth and ACT Governments to consider the findings and recommendations of Stage 2 of the ACT Policing Review before more permanent management arrangements are established. The ACT is policed by the AFP under an arrangement with the ACT Government. Changes applied in the ACT The organisation-wide changes have been applied to the ACT Region with an immediate benefit being the ability of experienced specialists to cross-train uniform personnel and for a greater number of uniform police to be integrated with detectives to conduct significant investigations. Regular public opinion surveys in the ACT continue to rate highly the policing service provided As part of this move, in June 1995, by ACT Region. the Major Crime Branch was disbanded and its members re­ deployed across the four police are operationally as efficient as empower the widest number of the districts to spread the expertise of the possible before any approach is made organisation’s staff and to improve investigators throughout the region. to government for additional improve employee challenges and The members retained carriage of resources. Indeed we cannot expect opportunities. This involves the use any investigations they were governments to take us seriously of highly skilled and experienced conducting prior to their unless our case has credibility and members to train, coach and develop redeployment and continued those can stand close scrutiny. others so as to remove elitism where investigations with the support of “The AFP’s change program is it may exist and to maximise the regional resources where appropriate. aimed at creating a flexible and capacity of the organisation to deal This redeployment gave the AFP a multi-skilled organisation which with the diversity, unpredictability keener edge in fighting crime within maximises the developmental and difficulty associated with many of the ACT. opportunity and operational skills of the expectations of our community. In late May 1995, the major the widest possible percentage of our A team approach with skills and refurbishment of City Police Station people and, through the strategic use resources spread across the ACT was completed at a cost of of those people, deliver the highest offers, I believe, the best recipe. $7.6 million Canberra, and more and most effective level of service to “The abolition of the Major Crime particularly the central city, is now our community. Squad in the ACT is a good example served by a first-class police facility. “Criminality is now more mobile, of how the AFP changing the way it At the opening of City Station organised and sophisticated than at does business and not the business it Commissioner Palmer referred to the any point in history and law does. application of the AFP’s enforcement agencies must adapt to “The expertise that was in the organisational change in the ACT. this new environment. The link Major Crime Squad, which was “All government bodies, and the between organised drug importation housed at the Winchester Centre, is police are no exception, are being and the tragic deaths in the ACT in now available all police stations in asked to do more with less and in this recent months is a good example of the ACT. It has not been lost as climate I doubt if there are any police the insidious potential of organised suggested by some - it is simply being chief executives that do not feel they crime to directly and dramatically better shared. need additional resources. affect the lives of ordinary people and “As a result of this skill transfer “The difficulty is that governments local communities. the AFP will develop a wider range do not have unlimited revenue, and “The challenge for policing is to of personnel with experience in we must compete for scarce resources have skills and processes which allow investigating major, serious and with a range of other priority bids and us to most effectively manage and other crime and this will mean we agency initiatives. control these links and the resultant will be in a better position to deal “In relation to the AFP, I believe crimes. with these investigations and our we have an obligation to first get our “One of the challenges faced by people will have more rewarding jobs own house in order to ensure that we management is to motivate, skill and as a result.” 30 Platypus Magazine.