For about 40 years the ACT had a separate police force. Then, in 1979, the Australian Federal Police was created, partly as a response to growing fears of terrorism and drugs and partly because a need was seen to have a force to deal with breaches of federal law, rather than leaving it to the state forces. As a result of the creation of the AFP the former Commonwealth Police, which was largely a protective-security force for Commonwealth property, the ACT force and the narcotics bureau were absorbed.
The ACT lost its separate police force. But there were many benefits for both officers and the ACT community. Officers were exposed to a far wider range of duties than just ACT crime and the ACT community got officers with broader experience and a force that could drawn upon the greater resources and the economies of scale offered by the larger force.
The arrangement has worked well, despite the occasional nostalgic yearning for the good old days, which had more to do with a sadness at the passing of the crimeless city than about police administration.
With self-government in 1989, however, complications set in. At first the Assembly lacked full power over policing matters. Then the ACT Government entered a contract arrangement with the AFP. But the ACT Government has never had full control over AFP officers serving in Canberra and nor have those officers ever been directly accountable to the ACT Government and through it to the Assembly and people of Canberra. AFP officers in the ACT have always been accountable up the ranks to the AFP commissioner who in turn is accountable to the Federal Government and Parliament.
One way to overcome the lack of accountability was the suggestion of a chief of ACT police who would be appointed by the ACT Government and answerable to it, but in the overall context of being an officer of the AFP. The previous Federal Government agreed to the idea. It had its difficulties in formal structure, but informally it provided a mechanism for accountability to the people of the ACT. Provided there was no serious rift between ACT desires and AFP desires it would probably work. But if there were a showdown, the chief of ACT police and those who he gives orders to would be in an impossible position trying to serve two masters. Probably for that reason, the new Federal Government has rejected the idea.
This leaves ACT Attorney-General Gary Humphries in an invidious position. He gets much of the blame for any police failings in the ACT and has to pay for their operations but has no ultimate power over them.
However, he does not have much option. Theoretically the ACT could set up its own force, using the $53 million a year it spends on its contract with the AFP. However, the return to a smaller force with its limited career prospects and inability to draw on AFP infrastructure would mean the ACT would get less for its money. On balance it would not be worth it just so that the ACT Minister gets an accountable police chief.
In any event the present AFP top brass is fairly sensitive to ACT needs and sees Canberra policing as a worthwhile part of its structure in giving wider opportunities to its officers. As the ACT is not, and can never be, a full state, a certain amount of subservience to Federal wishes is inevitable, especially in areas like policing where federal and territory functions overlap.
The ACT Government will have to rely on discussion, co-operation and compromise rather than insisting on power. It will have to cop it sweet.