Page 1313 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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The government has, on the one hand, made sure that ACT Policing is operating as efficiently as possible and, on the other, supported ACT Policing to deliver specialist and priority responses. On both fronts, the approach is to meet the community’s expectations of prudent, responsible government and supporting community safety. From 2013-14 to 2016-17 ACT Policing’s annual operating budget not only remained above $149 million but increased by just over $6 million, from $149.966 million in 2013-14 to $156.066 million in 2016-17.
The ACT experiences relatively low crime rates compared to other jurisdictions, and the overall crime rate has been stable over the last decade. However, the operating environment for police is constantly changing. The ACT government has worked closely with ACT Policing to ensure that our police force is adequately resourced to respond to emerging crime trends, priorities and ACT Policing’s organisational needs.
For example, in 2010-11 the government funded 16 additional police officers for liquor reforms and to establish an automated numberplate recognition team. In 2011-12 ACT Policing received funding for additional officers and equipment to enhance traffic operations to introduce random roadside drug testing, as well as staff to support the COAG security industry reforms. In 2013-14 ACT Policing’s road safety team was expanded by eight FTE, and additional vehicles were funded to improve road safety outcomes. In 2015-16 the ACT government increased ACT Policing’s baseline funding to enable services provided by a broader AFP across the areas of financial and commercial, ICT, operations, high-tech crime operations, legal and human resources and forensics.
In 2016-17 ACT Policing received funding specifically to support victims of family and domestic violence as part of the ACT government’s safer families budget announcement. This was in addition to increasing the capacity for Taskforce Nemesis to combat organised crime. More recently, in 2017-18 the ACT government supported a range of policing initiatives, including $5.3 million for enhanced protective security measures for ACT Policing, including equipping front-line officers with tasers; $2.1 million to plan for the future of policing; $4.9 million for an additional six police officers for extra patrols to support safer nightlife precincts; and a new maritime facility for the ACT’s water police team.
In the current budget, this government has continued its commitment to resourcing our police force, providing $167 million for ACT Policing, which includes $5.6 million to provide new smartphones to all police officers, to improve the secure capture, transmission and sharing of data and radio comms; $2 million to upgrade the facilities at Tuggeranong police station and Winchester police station; $2.6 million to recruit four new specialist positions to expand ACT Policing’s strategic analysis capability, helping to identify and target emerging crime trends; and $1.6 million to recruit two specialist officers to combat organised crime, strip criminal wealth and deliver an improved surveillance capability to monitor the activities of criminal gangs.
This wide-ranging list of budget initiatives demonstrates how this government has increased ACT Policing’s capacity to respond to the changing demands and needs of the community over the last decade as well as provide for its organisational needs in a modern police force.
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