Big boost to police numbers on way in record Budget spend but no station for Molonglo

The ACT will recruit 126 police officers over five years to help keep pace with Canberra’s growing population as part of a record $107 million spend on policing in the upcoming Budget.

The government will also continue to support innovative approaches to dealing with mental health situations by funding an additional Police Ambulance and Clinician Early Response (PACER) team in 2023-24, which will be available daily throughout the ACT.

The funding will also go towards a feasibility study into where and how police will be accommodated in the Territory, including a centrally located headquarters in the city to replace the ageing Winchester Centre in Belconnen and the city station.

But there are no plans at this stage for a new station in the growing Molonglo Valley which is tipped to double in population by 2028.

The area will be one where the extra police resources will be deployed, but Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan is unconvinced that a new station is required.

“Policing is mobile. We actually don’t actually sit like fire brigade officers waiting to respond. We’re mobile,” he said at a pre-budget press conference.

“Canberra geographically is a fairly small city. I’m not convinced we need another police station. I think the issue will be whether we’ve got the current police stations in the right spot and that will be an issue for the feasibility study to determine.”

CPO Gaughan said the largest investment in police since self-government was a vote of confidence in the men and women of ACT Policing.

Chief Minister Barr said the government sought to provide long-term funding certainty and a recruitment pathway for ACT Policing, and the funding would enable an additional annual recruitment course for the next five years.

He said extra GST revenue due to population growth had helped find the extra police funding but such investment usually came in four-yearly cycles and he expected police needs to again be reviewed on this scale in 2027.

CPO Gaughan said the number of new recruits planned was sufficient for ACT Policing to digest, given they needed to be trained and partnered with experienced officers and would take police numbers to more than 900 officers.

“It’s hard for me to absorb large numbers of police quickly,” he said, “so the fact that this is done in a slow way … will ensure that the people who police the ACT do so professionally, are well trained and able to service the community and give you the police force you expect.”

Mr Barr said the funding was also about police partnerships such as the PACER and the sexual and family violence programs.

He said the PACER program was a good example where the government didn’t expect police to carry the entire burden of the public sector’s response to a particular issue all by themselves but work in a multidisciplinary way.

“So how can police help, but also, how can the government agencies help? How can emergency services partner with police? How can mental health therapists partner with police? How can our domestic and family violence response partner with police to achieve the sorts of outcomes that we are looking for?” he said.

Mr Barr said if the Winchester site was no longer required, the sale of the land could go towards funding a new city headquarters and stations.

But he noted the government did not have to own the buildings.

“So a potential outcome of the feasibility work is an approach to market with the government taking out a long-term tenancy arrangement on behalf of ACT Policing in a building that is privately owned,” he said.

Mr Barr said there were a range of options on the table and the government was already looking at sites in the city precinct.

The new police headquarters could also be co-located with the emergency services headquarters.

The Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) President Alex Caruana said the investment had been a long time coming and would be well received by the community, especially ACT Policing members.

But Mr Caruana noted the extra officers were needed now and he feared natural attrition would mean that the same number of officers would likely be lost by 2028.

“There needs to be an ongoing assessment and review — the number of police officers in the ACT won’t really increase otherwise,” he said.

Mr Caruana added that the AFPA questioned the lack of a new Molonglo station.

“The Woden patrol zone is already enormous, and the Molonglo Valley is increasing in size and population. Wouldn’t it be wise to create an emergency services precinct with a new police station to cater for this expansion?” he said

Mr Caruana was also concerned about the lack of progress in updating the Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre from which police operate.

Police Minister Mick Gentleman said Rural Fire Service Officers would be moving out of the facility to give police more room, but this could not happen until the SES and RFS site in Mitchell was completed in mid-2024.