Security preparedness
Media Conference, ACT Legislative Assembly
Deputy Chief Police Officer Commander Steve Lancaster
Wednesday 24 August 2005
Cmndr Lancaster: As we know evacuations are an important part of the broader security strategy for ACT Policing. It’s important we look at the broader security framework and how we sit on that, and I’d like to take this opportunity to reassure the ACT public that we are in a very good position at the moment. We work in a partnered approach with the Emergency Services Authority (ESA) and a lot of other agencies to ensure that we are well placed in the event of an incident -- before an incident occurs. We have some strong national linkages, and this is really important for us as you can tell by the London bombings that we have learned a lot from these incidents around the world, so we are prepared in the event, if one unfortunately, does occur in the ACT. By having these strong linkages, such as the National Counter Terrorism Committee (NCTC), we actually can build upon our operation and our intelligence and all facets of incident management to make sure we are fully prepared. Being part of the wider AFP offers some unique advantages; we have got very good access for operational intelligence, and this not only applies here nationally but also internationally and that is a great benefit to ACT Policing and to the ACT community. In more practical terms, our people – police and emergency services – are well experienced on the road. We do this on a daily basis; we manage incidents of major and minor proportions all the time and I think our history has shown that we do manage them professionally. We work in a coordinated manner and I think most of the ACT community has seen us in various incidents where that has been shown – that we are professional. So again, I just want to remind you this occurs on a daily basis. The recent ANU fire is a good example where this is a daily event where services went and resolved it very quickly and efficiently. We do a lot of training, internally and multi-agency training, and this is a fundamental part of being prepared for any incident that occurs. We ensure that our members are well trained; we do a lot of internal work and also a lot of operations. The NCTC exercises that are coming up shortly are a perfect example of a major exercise where all parties are involved and we test each of our capabilities. In concluding I’d just like to assure all members of the public that, every second, every minute and every hour of the day, ACT Policing and the Emergency Services are working hard to ensure we preserve the safety and security of the environment in the ACT, and as ESA Commissioner Peter Dunn said, the community has to take a lot of ownership in this as well and understand what we’re doing and what our plans are. Thank you.
Ends//