Airport uniform policing
Airport uniform police officers provide a community policing presence at eleven major Australian airports including, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
These officers provide immediate response to policing matters within the airport precincts. This includes attending to general policing issues such as:
- investigating minor criminal matters
- taking reports of offences
- making arrests
- conducting interviews
- subsequent judicial processing.
Airport uniform police officers are experienced State or Territory police who are seconded to the AFP. They work under the command of the AFP Airport Police Commanders in each of the 11 airports and are one part of the AFP’s unified policing presence.
They provide immediate support to the AFP’s counter-terrorist first response teams, including protective service officers, bomb appraisal officers and firearms and explosives detection teams, by providing a community policing presence at airports.
Background
The 2005 Wheeler Review into airport security and policing made key recommendations on the structure and operation of Australian airport policing and security.
The AFP developed a unified policing model to enhance airport security and provide a community policing presence at eleven major Australian airports, through community policing, investigations, intelligence gathering, and terrorism deterrence and response.
In September 2005 all Australian State and Territory governments at the Council of Australian Governments meeting agreed to provide police officers to perform a uniformed police role at major Australian airports.
Airport uniform police retain their respective State or Territory police powers, in addition to being sworn in as special members of the AFP. This allows them to operate under the relevant State, Territory or Commonwealth legislation as required.
The AFP’s unified policing presence enables a comprehensive and coordinated approach to addressing criminality and terrorist threats in the aviation sector through:
- Airport Police Commanders, police aviation liaison officers, joint airport intelligence groups, counter-terrorist first response teams and airport uniform police at all 11 major airports.
- Joint airport investigation teams at five international airports