National Police Remembrance Day
Ross Solly - ABC 666 Interview with Chief Police Officer Audrey Fagan
Thursday 29 September 2005
Ross Solly: Well it is a very special day nationally for our police. It's the day that they remember fallen colleagues and there'll be activities here in Canberra today. Audrey Fagan is the ACT Chief Police Officer and she joins us this morning; good morning Ms Fagan.
Audrey Fagan: Good morning Ross, how are you?
Ross Solly: I'm well. Thanks for talking to us this morning; how do you feel on a day like this?
Audrey Fagan: It's interesting that the weather's overcast and you know we've got a grey day. It's a time where we think of people who have lost their lives, police who have lost their lives in the line of duty this year and of course you naturally go back - I've been in the police force 24 years - to colleagues who have lost their lives in what I think is the ultimate sacrifice. So it's a mixture of honouring them and some sadness.
Ross Solly: Yeah, having been in the force for so long, do you have a deep sense of foreboding today?
Audrey Fagan: I think it's a reminder of what we do and the importance of what we do for the community in serving as police officers. It's also a recognition of the effort of those individuals and a tribute to their families and so, it is a mixed feeling. I think you've got to draw strength from it and I think that's what the officers do today.
Ross Solly: In your 20-odd years in the force have you ever lost a colleague who was particularly close to you?
Audrey Fagan: There have been a number: there's a colleague who lost his life on a Customs flight in WA about 10 years ago and I'll be thinking about him particularly. There's Adam Dunning this year also; I looked after the Protective Service and our efforts there for about two years in fact, I brought them into the AFP post-September 11, so that's fairly touching for me. I've met his family and I feel for them today as well.
Ross Solly: It must be a tough job when you not only know the officer as you did in this case, but you know, you have to deal with a grieving family.
Audrey Fagan: I think that today on Police Remembrance Day, when you think about it, there are 20 officers who we're remembering today. Then there are nine in Australia and another 11 in the Pacific including PNG and Fiji, so they touch us all, each and every one. It's about honouring the service they gave to the community.
Ross Solly: Do you think things have changed in the force with the way you deal with grieving colleagues compared with what happened, the experience you had 10 years ago or so back in Western Australia, to how we deal with it now?
Audrey Fagan: I think that's right in some respects. I think that with our Chaplaincy - and we'll have our Chaplains there today - and the support networks that are in place, these are very important. And I think that the ceremony around it can't be underestimated either. The parade, the lead up to turning up outside St Christopher's Cathedral is important symbolically, so I think it's a mixed thing that people will draw strength from.
Ross Solly: Did you used to get counselling back then?
Audrey Fagan: Oh yes certainly there was, but what I guess I'm saying is that it was as formalised; now, it's more available I suppose. We've got a police chaplain, Gayl Mills here in Canberra, and a raft of services, welfare etc. so I think we have now got more options and it's more acceptable I suppose than - and I'm thinking maybe 10, 20 years ago - than the recent past.
Ross Solly: I would imagine in the police line of work, every day when you get called out to a job you, you're trained I know to deal with all sort of situations, but you just never know what might be waiting for you at the other end, do you?
Audrey Fagan: And Ross I think that's a good point, and I think that the training has that preparation in mind. And you know I'd just ask the community maybe to take a moment and think about the police. You know, we're part of the community and that partnership is very important to us. So if you're in Manuka and would like to come to the service; it's about a thank-you and recognition for policing in Australia today.
Ross Solly: Ok, now what time is it all taking place?
Audrey Fagan: The parade will kick off at about 9:30am and walk through to the Cathedral at 10am. The Governor-General's arriving just before that as are a raft of Federal and local ministers, and our ACT Police Minister John Hargreaves will be there too. At 10am it starts at the Cathedral. We'll then have about an hour long service, it will be quite touching; they'll work through the role of honour - in fact I'll be reading the names of all the officers today - and Commissioner Mick Keelty will be giving the occasional address.
Ross Solly: Ok and all are welcome. It's 19 to nine on 666 breakfast. My guest is ACT Chief Police Officer Audrey Fagan. Ms Fagan, the police have been in the news so much of late and we've heard concerns here with all the pressures that have been applied now in terms of overseas postings and the war on terrorism and officers being required to be stationed at the airport; can we cope here in Canberra?
Audrey Fagan: I was asked this just recently, in fact after the COAG meeting which I attended with the Chief Minister. I'm confident that ACT Policing numbers can be met and we will continue to serve the community. We have our budget in place and we'll continue to meet the 37 KPIs that we have to serve this community. So it's a matter of now working through the detail of the airport proposal, but this is something that the Commonwealth has to talk to the States and Territories about. In fact, given that it's all AFP and the funding is coming from the Commonwealth, that'll be an additional support service if you like at Canberra Airport which we currently do in any event, as crime appears there. So, I see it as an additional benefit.
Ross Solly: Would we have to take people off the streets, some of our police officers off the streets to support this role out at the airport?
Audrey Fagan: Ross I don't see that that's necessarily the case. What will happen is that for the AFP in serving in Canberra, we'll call I imagine - and we haven't got the detail yet - across the AFP for people to serve there, and that's all part and parcel of normal movement of staff, of the 5000-odd people who are in the AFP.
Ross Solly: The police union, as you may have heard in our news this morning, have certainly been quite upfront about their concerns there, and I suppose they're reflecting the police on the beat, the concerns that they've got.
Audrey Fagan: I listen and meet with my officers all the time here, and you know, the sad fact is, as more work and often more crime arises, there are more people seeking to see the police. We've got a priority system of attendance and we meet all our priority one performance indicators which is very important to us, so you know you can never do everything and you have to be doing the very important things. I just think that the officers, and the General Duty patrol people, our Territory Investigations Group etc do a fantastic job and the results stand for what we're achieving. Our burglary rates for example are down, about 13.8%, you know so there are some significant runs on the board that just dismiss a bit, that argument.
Ross Solly: None the less we have had reports here that we don't do random breath testing as much now as we once did, and other areas where there was maybe very high profile police presence, isn't as obvious any more.
Audrey Fagan: The option of the visibility and presence of police is a key one for me and we're working to a response model that gets the right police at the right place and of course in the context of that, there's the Joint Study into Policing that's being considered by the ACT Government as well so these things are always looked at. We're constantly adjusting and I was listening to you just before we spoke about the traffic today, and that's another message that we'll adjust today because of the rainy conditions.
Ross Solly: Drawing on your resources Audrey Fagan, if you've also got the worry about what's happening at the airport, you've now got new responsibilities with regard to these new terrorism laws that have come in this week, yet there doesn't seem at this stage to be any indication at all that all of a sudden you're going to have 100 new officers under your command.
Audrey Fagan: The subject of new laws, and we welcome those, is about increasing the actual capabilities that officers have and I think that with the environment that we're in, where we have a refinement to laws and then we get the training, that that actually can help assist our officers doing their work, so you know I welcome those terrorism laws, particularly. And I won't apologise at all for day-to-day adjustments to policing; I think that's exactly what the community expects.
Ross Solly: Can you give the community a guarantee that the police will still be able to respond as quickly as they have done in the past, there will be no problems at all there, no delays because of resourcing problems?
Audrey Fagan: What I guarantee is that where we've got our priorities in place and with the timeframes that we've got, we strive in every event to meet them to the upmost, to serve the community and give it its best police force that we can.
Ross Solly: And you can't foresee any problems because of all these extra responsibilities now?
Audrey Fagan: Well the dialogue still needs to occur on that Ross. It's really important that we now meet with the Commonwealth authorities and that's what has been made clear by the Prime Minister and others to work out those details.
Ross Solly: Do you have some concerns though that you might raise with them?
Audrey Fagan: I'd welcome the dialogue, but as I started out Ross: I think both from having powers and some laws in place to increase the capacity for police to do their job and the extra funding that will come our way to police Canberra Airport, it's a welcome thing.
Ross Solly: Alright Audrey Fagan, I'd better let you go to prepare for the parade this morning. Thank you very much for your time.
Audrey Fagan: Thank you Ross.
Ross Solly: That's Audrey Fagan who is the ACT Chief Police Officer and of course today is Police Remembrance Day and as you heard Ms Fagan say, you can join the remembrance ceremony down at Manuka at around 9:30am-10 o'clock.
Ends//