Australian Federal Police to get armoured unit for overseas deployments

[LRPV]

Cameron Stewart | November 07, 2007

THE Australian Federal Police plans to have its own fleet of armoured vehicles to send to hotspots around the globe by late next year.
But the AFP denies the move will transform it into a paramilitary force, saying the new so-called "protected armoured response vehicles" will not be mounted with guns or other weapons.
Instead the armoured fleet will be used to protect AFP officers from attacks while deployed on peacekeeping missions in areas of civil unrest such as the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
About 320 AFP officers are on overseas deployments in more than 10 countries including the Solomons, East Timor, Nauru, Sudan, Cyprus, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
"These vehicles will assist in providing appropriate levels of protection for the often unstable environments that our members face offshore," an AFP spokeswoman told The Australian.
"The fatal shooting of Officer Adam Dunning whilst on mobile patrol in the Solomon Islands and the injuries sustained by AFP officers during the Honiara riots demonstrate the inherent dangers involved in peacekeeping operations and capacity building."
The move reflects a sharp expansion in the overseas operations of the AFP in recent years in both peacekeeping roles and counter-terrorism.
The AFP says it needs its own armoured vehicles on overseas deployments because the Australian Defence Force is not always present and cannot be relied on to protect AFP officers. The AFP declined to say how many armoured vehicles it wants and what the fleet will cost. It has not yet decided what type of armoured vehicle it will buy, but tenders closed last week and the AFP says it wants the new fleet to be delivered by late next year.
Possible purchase options shown to The Australian range from heavily armoured vehicles with similarities to their military counterparts to light armoured vehicles which look like Land Rovers.
The AFP's armoured vehicles will be used only for overseas operations and will not be used in Australia.
The move follows the $500million plan announced last year by AFP commissioner Mick Keelty to double the AFP's international force to about 1200 officers.
The most likely destination for the armoured vehicles is the Solomon Islands, where 213 AFP officers are deployed to help keep civil order.
A further 50 AFP officers are serving in East Timor while 15 are helping keep the peace in Cyprus.
The armoured vehicles are likely to be used by the AFP's new overseas anti-riot squad.
Expansion of the AFP's presence overseas is designed to avoid situations where heavily armed soldiers have to perform lengthy law and order missions better suited to well-trained police.
The multi-million-dollar investment in the AFP, including the armoured vehicles purchase, recognises that both army and police are vital to the success of long-term nation-building missions such as those in East Timor and the Solomons.


This purchase indicates the AFP is likely to be continually deployed in 'warm' spots.

[kalboy]

I was trying to find a pic of the WA Police Saracen but found this instead.
Whats on the roof of the APC ? Is it the Access Denial System ????

19/10/07
http://www.police.wa.gov.au/Portals/11/Images/WAPolice/bearcat.jpgThe WA Police emergency response and counter terrorism capabilities have been given a major boost with two new special purpose vehicles.

The Lenco Bearcat Armoured Police Rescue Vehicle (APRV) is considered to be one of the best tactical armoured vehicles in the world.
Weighing nine tonnes and painted matte black, the Bearcat is bullet proof, armour plated, and capable of withstanding a small explosion.
The V-8 diesel turbo powered 4WD and its equipment will be used primarily to rescue seriously injured people who may be helpless and unprotected at a major incident.
The Bearcat can be driven close to a victim, and provide cover as specially trained officers recover an injured or badly wounded person, and remove them to safety.
The Bearcat was designed and built to WA Police specifications by Lenco Armoured Vehicles in Massachusetts, USA, at a cost of $A331, 000.
The Bearcat replaces the obsolete World War II designed Saracen personnel carrier that is now more than 40 years old.
The other addition to the fleet is a Forward Command Vehicle designed to be a ‘state of the art’ communications and control centre for emergencies and other major events.
The $650,000 combination is fitted out with advanced communications, and other equipment enabling full remote access to the police network, live video feeds from incident scenes, and geospatial mapping capabilities.
Both vehicles were purchased by the State Government funded Increased Counter Terrorism and Emergency Response Capability Project

[MichaelF]

Ze Waffen-AFP?

[muck]

Is that really something special for the Australian public? Many federal police forces dispose of such units.
German federal police, everything but not a paramilitary formation, has a plenty of armoured vehicles (occasionally even equipped with the G8 machine gun) in its motor pool.

[Wolfe117]

Royal Canadian Mounted Police have M113s and AVGs. They're used for emergencies and riots.

[Bert]

Why on earth is the federal police deployed in peacekeeping missions? Sounds like a Gendarmerie or something.

[Wolfe117]

RCMP in Afghanistan

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/3381/is20071043qv5.jpg

[tipsovr]

The RCMP actually deployed to Afghanistan? Cool. Wish my department had a program like that.

Come to think of it, the U.S. is the only major country I can think of that doesn't have a National police force. Am I way off here?

[jetsetter]

The RCMP actually deployed to Afghanistan? Cool. Wish my department had a program like that.

Come to think of it, the U.S. is the only major country I can think of that doesn't have a National police force. Am I way off here?


The United States of America does not have a single national police force as such. Instead federal crimes and federal law enforcement is divided into several organizations within the United States Department of Justice with a different mandate and jurisdiction. Such organizations include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Marshals Service.

The RCMP is both the Federal and National police force of Canada. If in the US it were all in a single organization I can't image how friggin huge it would be. Canada can do it, it has a population of 33 million.

Here is a list of Federal Police agencies in the US.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police Force.
United States Mint Police
IRS Criminal Investigation Division,
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPO)
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP)
U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS)
Government Printing Office Police
Hoover Dam Police
Library of Congress Police
National Zoological Park Police
Office of Protective Services, Smithsonian Institution
Office of Protective Services, National Gallery of Art
Supreme Court Police
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
United States Park Police
National Park Service, Law Enforcement Rangers
U.S. Forest Service, Law Enforcement Officers
U.S. Forest Service, Criminal Investigators
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Refuge Officers
U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
U.S. Postal Inspection Service
Diplomatic Security Service (DSS)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Police
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
Federal Reserve System - Federal Reserve System Police
United States Capitol Police (USCP)
Tennessee Valley Authority - TVA Police (federally owned corporation)
United States Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General
Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Division
Defense Logistics Agency Police
Pentagon Force Protection Agency, U.S. Pentagon Police
United States Military Academy - West Point Military Police
Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AOSI)
U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID)
United States Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General
United States Environmental Protection Agency - Criminal Investigation Division
National Institutes of Health Police
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General (OIG)
US Federal police at USDOJ

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

You must ask yourself is that money well spent. I mean how many directors in each of those departments are on 6 figures. The all the overlap of duties and so forth, rent for offices, each department would have it's own AP, AR, HR, sections,

Massive waste of money IMO

[LRPV]

Is that really something special for the Australian public? Many federal police forces dispose of such units.
German federal police, everything but not a paramilitary formation, has a plenty of armoured vehicles (occasionally even equipped with the G8 machine gun) in its motor pool.

Muck,
This ia a significant move. State police having armour is contraversial enough, but Feds? As the article stated, there is no current intention to deploy them within Australia. The purchase does signal an intent towards ongoing foreign deployments in trouble spots.

As for our police being armed with belt-fed weapons in Australia, to my knowledge no police service has such kit, or should have it.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Johnny is turning into a dictator!!!!!!!!!1

Told you guys not to trust him. But do you listen to this lefty? NO!

[LRPV]

Ok ok...





https://alpdonation.com.au/merchandise/template_images/merchandise_01.jpg

[MichaelF]

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is about as close as we come to a Gendarmerie/National Police force, and even they have a pretty narrow purview (ditto for the FBI, contrary to what you see on TV).
The bulk of LE is done by State (which often have paramilitary roots) and Local forces.

DHS does not have it's own "Special Branch"-type enforcement arm, relying instead on the FBI and SS to do the field work, and often slicing off the actual arrest/enforcement to State and Local LEOs.

Of course, ICE and BP, and others(Forest Service, etc), have full enforcement powers within their own portfolios.

For various historical/cultural reasons, Americans are leery of a "National Police" organization. I'm not, but I've traveled a bit more than the average American, and have seen the good (Carabinieri, etc) and the bad (Stasi, etc). Most Americans, OTOH, equate such a force (not without reason) with the Gestapo/NKVD, or at least the potential to be such.

If we were starting from scratch, or there was a massive reshuffling of the Federal apparatus, then a National Police force in the MI5/Carabinieri mold (perhaps as an Armed Force, under the DoJ during peacetime, reverting to the Army during wartime, like the Coast Guard) would be a good idea.
As things stand now? Too much inertia and paranoia (some of it justified).

[MichaelF]

You must ask yourself is that money well spent. I mean how many directors in each of those departments are on 6 figures. The all the overlap of duties and so forth, rent for offices, each department would have it's own AP, AR, HR, sections,

Massive waste of money IMO

You aren't the first to point that out.

The way our "system" works, if we wanted to consolidate, there would be one "security police" force serving all Federal orgs, which would be good, but all the investigative work (which is mostly what all the different LE orgs do) would be shuffled off onto the FBI or OIG (who would now be massively powerful, as well as overworked).

Right now, pretty much every Executive Branch department and agency has it's own OIG (Office of the Inspector General), including NASA, that has a LE unit (of varying size) which investigates malfeisance, fraud and crimes against that particular organization. This is in addition to any other LE unit within that org (such as the National Park Service Rangers, or DoD Police)....

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Just for standard law enforcement. I mean

Town/Cities -> county -> State -> Federal. Let alone the ATF, CIA, NSA, Marshall service and so forth.

Massive overlap of powers and administration that IMO is not needed.

Australia only has State and Federal. If the us streamlined it's law enforcement organisations there would be a lower cost and jurisdictions would not have the problem of differences in law and so forth. Should make for a better cooperative approach to combating crime.

[MichaelF]

Just for standard law enforcement. I mean

Town/Cities -> county -> State -> Federal. Let alone the ATF, CIA, NSA, Marshall service and so forth.

Massive overlap of powers and administration that IMO is not needed.

Australia only has State and Federal. If the us streamlined it's law enforcement organisations there would be a lower cost and jurisdictions would not have the problem of differences in law and so forth. Should make for a better cooperative approach to combating crime.

The problem comes from our population. >300,000,000 people, spread out over a Continent changes the rules. The current system developed to provide Law&Order to the maximum possible % of the population (as well as address Federal concerns, like corruption and counterfeiting).

Without County cops, the cities would have to cover the surrounding areas, diluting concentration of force in the urban areas (understand, even many of our "rural" areas, East of the Mississippi, are pretty heavily populated), while stretching span of control.

Get rid of the Local cops, and the Sherrif has the same problem I outlined above.

Without State cops, there's issues with Highway and Interstate policing, as well as aid to overwhelmed Local agencies.

Some States, like Alaska, do omit one level. in Alaska's case, no Sheriffs. Just State Police (who also run a part-time Peace Officer program in the isolated towns) and City cops.

In other States, there are fewer major cities who could support a large police force, and the population is spread thinly over the counties. In those areas, the Sheriff's Office provides the lion's share of the law & order (being able to draw on funds from the larger county population, instead of having 10 4-man town depts).

Hollywood aside, most of the different LEOs work well together. Most County LEOs establish a good working relationship with the City departments in their jurisdiction. State cops usually bat cleanup and monitor the Highways.

[MichaelF]

MI5 are a national agency who deal solely with intelligence gathering they aren't a national police and have no powers of arrest, if and when someone needs to be arrested then is normally done by antiterrorism branch or special branch

The complete statement I made was "in the MI5/Carabinieri mold"...

IOW, a fusion of the best attributes of those organizations. I was not equating the two.

[little icebear]

As for our police being armed with belt-fed weapons in Australia, to my knowledge no police service has such kit, or should have it.

Actually it is (partly was) quite common. Especially within Europe. But the German Federal Polices pool of heavy gear (including APCs) for example has been reduced. The Italians and French on the other hand are AFAIK still using pretty heavy stuff a lot.

But don´t get confused. Within your own borders, you wont be able to tell a big difference when you compare them to regular policemen. The heavy gear is only for state of emergency and deployment abroad.


Why on earth is the federal police deployed in peacekeeping missions? Sounds like a Gendarmerie or something.

Gendarmarie is federal police. At least I would say so, even when in France or maybe Italy it is under authority of the defense branche.