AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine

You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine >> 1999 >> [1999] AUFPPlatypus 12

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Author Info | Download | Help

Editors --- "Focus on service" [1999] AUFPPlatypus 12; (1999) 63 Platypus: Journal of the Australian Federal Police, Article 4


Focus on service

As part of a continuing series on the AFP's partnerships with key law enforcement and related agencies in Australia and overseas, this edition of Platypus Magazine looks at the Western Australia Police Service.

The Delta Program has guided the Western Australia Police Service through radical and profound change since September 1994, with the goal of re-shaping the Service, says its Commissioner Bob Falconer, who leaves this month after five years at the helm. As the following article demonstrates, many strategies and initiatives have been implemented to attain that goal.

In 1994, there were a number of ‘forces' acting upon the Western Australia Police Service indicating and prompting the need for change. Big change.

These ‘forces' included:

• Community dissatisfaction with our performance and conduct, reflected through the media.

• Internal recognition from our people that our performance and resource utilisation was not at an appropriate level.

• A government-driven, external consultancy review which illustrated shortcomings in our management processes.

In general terms, the community and the police had grown apart.

It was clear that the Western Australia Police Service, as the principal law enforcement agency, had to undertake a major transformation process — a change process that would provide a long-term sustainable improvement. This meant it had to be based on changing not only structure and processes but also the culture of the organisation.

The first fundamental step in our reform program was tackling Style and Standards. This involved realigning our approach to the delivery of services, and introducing a more contemporary, customer-orientated organisation. It was about ensuring our values and ethical standards were of the highest order and we articulated the new style and standards in our Purpose and Direction booklet.

Style and Standards provided the foundation for our reform program. With extensive input from the community and our staff, we revisited the ‘Why', ‘What' and ‘How' of our business.

The resulting document, Purpose and Direction, clearly articulated the future direction of the Service. We needed to become more customer focused; we needed to be more innovative and creative in optimising the use of resources; and we needed to assume a leadership role, working with our strategic partners to provide quality services at a local level.

The underlying principle of our service delivery was to be that of a local level, problem solving, partnership approach to policing.

In the past we had, as had many other policing jurisdictions, adopted the community policing ethos. But internally its implementation had become somewhat of a specialist role and the true intent of community-based policing had not permeated throughout the entire organisation.

The more cynical within policing jurisdiction ranks commonly referring to community police officers as ‘plastic policemen'.

Similarly, inadequacies existed in relation to inter-agency cooperation and coordination. In the past, public sector agencies with a role to play in safety and security had interacted at a local level, and to some extent at a corporate level, but essentially this interaction was intermittent and largely uncoordinated.

Similarly, the community had little appreciation of the need for its active participation, nor had the Police Service provided the community with the opportunity or the mechanisms to perform such a role.

It was clear that the new approach needed to be one where our whole agency and its employees were prepared to work in partnership with their community. Intersectoral cooperation and coordination also needed to be heightened and the community needed to become actively involved.

To facilitate this realignment the Western Australia Police Service has redesigned its structure. We have moved from a centrally-driven organisation to a devolved, regionalised model. Accountability and responsibility now rest at the local level. The role and responsibilities of specialist sections and squads have been redefined. We have developed and introduced systems and processes that encourage community involvement. We have actively sought the involvement of our strategic partners.

We have empowered our personnel to be innovative and creative when applying problem solving techniques and we have supported them with enhanced training, facilities and equipment.

Almost five years into the program significant results are being achieved and there is clear evidence that this approach is being embraced by members of the agency and the community. Strategic partnerships have been established with industry groups, private businesses and government agencies to address the causal factors of crime and anti-social behaviour. For example:

In 1994, there were a number of ‘forces' acting upon the Western Australia Police Service indicating and prompting the need for change. Big change.

These ‘forces' included:

• Community dissatisfaction with our performance and conduct, reflected through the media.

• Internal recognition from our people that our performance and resource utilisation was not at an appropriate level.

• A government-driven, external consultancy review which illustrated shortcomings in our management processes.

In general terms, the community and the police had grown apart.

It was clear that the Western Australia Police Service, as the principal law enforcement agency, had to undertake a major transformation process — a change process that would provide a long-term sustainable improvement. This meant it had to be based on changing not only structure and processes but also the culture of the organisation.

The first fundamental step in our reform program was tackling Style and Standards. This involved realigning our approach to the delivery of services, and introducing a more contemporary, customer-orientated organisation. It was about ensuring our values and ethical standards were of the highest order and we articulated the new style and standards in our Purpose and Direction booklet.

Style and Standards provided the foundation for our reform program. With extensive input from the community and our staff, we revisited the ‘Why', ‘What' and ‘How' of our business.

The resulting document, Purpose and Direction, clearly articulated the future direction of the Service. We needed to become more customer focused; we needed to be more innovative and creative in optimising the use of resources; and we needed to assume a leadership role, working with our strategic partners to provide quality services at a local level.

The underlying principle of our service delivery was to be that of a local level, problem solving, partnership approach to policing.

In the past we had, as had many other policing jurisdictions, adopted the community policing ethos. But internally its implementation had become somewhat of a specialist role and the true intent of community-based policing had not permeated throughout the entire organisation.

The more cynical within policing jurisdiction ranks commonly referring to community police officers as ‘plastic policemen'.

Similarly, inadequacies existed in relation to inter-agency cooperation and coordination. In the past, public sector agencies with a role to play in safety and security had interacted at a local level, and to some extent at a corporate level, but essentially this interaction was intermittent and largely uncoordinated.

Similarly, the community had little appreciation of the need for its active participation, nor had the Police Service provided the community with the opportunity or the mechanisms to perform such a role.

It was clear that the new approach needed to be one where our whole agency and its employees were prepared to work in partnership with their community. Intersectoral cooperation and coordination also needed to be heightened and the community needed to become actively involved.

To facilitate this realignment the Western Australia Police Service has redesigned its structure. We have moved from a centrally-driven organisation to a devolved, regionalised model. Accountability and responsibility now rest at the local level. The role and responsibilities of specialist sections and squads have been redefined. We have developed and introduced systems and processes that encourage community involvement. We have actively sought the involvement of our strategic partners.

We have empowered our personnel to be innovative and creative when applying problem solving techniques and we have supported them with enhanced training, facilities and equipment.

Almost five years into the program significant results are being achieved and there is clear evidence that this approach is being embraced by members of the agency and the community. Strategic partnerships have been established with industry groups, private businesses and government agencies to address the causal factors of crime and anti-social behaviour. For example:

• Through working with local schools, community groups, local government and shopping centre management, new ways of reducing school truancy are being introduced, decreasing the level of juvenile crime in specific areas.

• Through working with local authorities, the liquor industry and liquor businesses, accords have been established to develop and implement the responsible serving and consumption of alcohol, reducing the incidence of alcohol-related crime and road crashes.

These partnerships have seen a cooperative effort in developing new ways of addressing community concerns that are more cost effective.

One of the most wide ranging and successful examples of strategic partnerships is Crime Stoppers, a team effort involving the police, the community and the media. The WA Crime Stoppers Unit commenced in 1995 and is the most successful in Australia, due largely to the support of the Western Australian community. Through this program members of the public directly contribute to the apprehension of offenders and solution of crimes.

The program also contributes to the deterrence of crime and general security awareness. At the recent 1998 International Crime Stoppers Award the Crime Stoppers (WA) won the following categories from a field of 163 Crime Stopper programs operating throughout the world:

MEDIA
PRODUCTIVITY
‘Web Site of the Year'
‘Cases Cleared'
‘Special Feature'
‘Arrests'
‘TV Special Feature'
‘Most improved'
‘Public Service Announcement'

The Crime Stoppers (WA) Unit was also runner up in the ‘Dollar Value Recovery' category.

Pc-Cops is another initiative that provides members of the community with information about available police services, crime prevention strategies and other local community-relevant information, via an automated telephone system. For the cost of a local call members of the community can be kept informed as to what activity is occurring in their area, what to look out for and what to do about it.

The Pc-Cops program was acknowledged as a finalist in the Service Design and Delivery category of the 1998 Premier's Awards and the recipient of a Gold Award in the 1998 Eleventh Government Information Technology Productivity Awards.

The recently announced Safer WA initiative further recognises the need for this type of partnership, with its theme of ‘Police and the Community Together Against Crime'. Safer WA will consolidate and enhance the coordination of many law and order related initiatives currently undertaken by a range of state and local government agencies, community organisations and volunteers.

These partnerships are reflected in the composition of the Government's new peak law and order advisory body, the Safer WA Council which is chaired by the Commissioner of Police. It will facilitate state government, local government, private sector and community representatives working together to tackle community safety and security problems at the local community level.

Across this large State, the single largest police jurisdiction in the world, there are many examples of ‘tailor made' innovative and effective initiatives being employed to address local issues. For instance in the far north at Halls Creek, local police have implemented the ‘Adopt a Class' initiative where individual officers have ‘adopted' one of the 15 classes at Halls Creek High School and Red Hill Community School. Officers take a special interest in the class pupils and are able to provide advice and guidance on a range of social issues including safety and security.

In the far south at Albany, a Juvenile Action Group Team has been developed to identify and help young people at risk of criminal behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse. The team consists of a police officer, a youth worker and an Aboriginal community member, who are able to identify risk factors in the environment of youth such as poverty, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy and family abuse.

The team, having identified youth at risk, initiate appropriate action on a case by case basis. This program was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the 1998 Australian Violence Prevention Awards.

In the Laverton (Central) Region the level of substance abuse, such as glue and petrol sniffing, by young people was causing serious community concern in terms of personal health issues and the accompanying occurrence of anti-social behaviour. To address the crisis, the police together with other agencies and community members, introduced a number of preventative and educational strategies. These include establishment of the Laverton Petrol Sniffing Control Committee to ensure coordination between all parties. The Committee is now the official liaison point between the Government and the desert communities. The efforts of Laverton Police were acknowledged as recipients of the Premier's Award for Excellence in 1997.

In Geraldton, police in partnership with the Education Department and Family and Childrens' Services, have instigated the ‘Early Bird Program' at the two local high schools to attract and maintain would-be truants to school. Police and teachers conduct before school activities including the provision of breakfast.

All students are welcome to participate and in addition police receive referrals of ‘in need' children from Family and Childrens' Services. In many of these situations police provide transport to school for the children.

While these are only a few examples of the many and varied initiatives occurring across the State, they demonstrate the progress the Western Australia Police Service has made towards meeting the needs of the community in a way that encourages and fosters their support.

Whilst we have achieved much there are still many challenges ahead and further scope for improvement. However, the foundation has been set. With the continued commitment of our members, the support of Government and active participation of the broader community, we will be successful in ensuring community safety and security.


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUFPPlatypus/1999/12.html