Our work at major airports

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the primary law-enforcement agency at the nine major Australian airports: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Law-enforcement in Australia's aviation environment includes:

deterring, preventing and responding to threats of terror
investigating serious and organised crime in the aviation sector and
performing a uniformed policing role.

AFP activities in the aviation environment include:

targeting organised crime in the air stream
deterring acts of terrorism
providing a uniformed policing presence
providing first response to acts of terrorism and emergency incidents
collecting and analysing aviation intelligence and
conducting investigations.

The AFP works closely with state and territory police services, Commonwealth agencies, airport operators and airlines to coordinate action against terrorist and other criminal threats to Australian aviation safety and security. This includes working closely with other areas of the AFP such as the National Operations State Service Centre, Intelligence, Protection, Transnational Serious and Organised Crime, and Crime Operations.

The AFP's presence at each airport includes:

Airport Police Commanders

Airport Police Commanders (APCs) are in place at all nine designated airports. They are responsible for the coordinated command and control of aviation policing and security activities in partnership with federal and state government agencies and private sector organisations.

Airport Operations

Airport Operation officers provide a uniformed policing presence at the nine designated Australian airports - Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Canine teams work in conjunction with AFP airport operations to deliver a coordinated, highly visible law enforcement capability to detect, deter and mitigate threats to our aviation environment. Find out more on the AFP Airport Operations page.