New South Wales Police Force

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Badge of the NSW Police

The New South Wales Police Force (also NSW Police or NSWPOL) is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is an agency of the Government of New South Wales within the New South Wales Ministry for Police.

The NSW Police in its current form was established in 1862 with the passing of the Police Regulation Act and drew upon members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Its current Commissioner of Police is Kenneth Edward Moroney APM. The Cabinet Minister of the State Government responsible for the policing portfolio is Carl Scully.

The NSW Police currently consists of 15000 officers, with a growing percentage being female and/or of an Non English Speaking Background; all are issued with GLOCK sidearms. Current policing policy favours community liaison over confrontation, however, much social tension still unfortunately exists between marginalised groups such as Aborigines, Middle Easterners and low-income groups on one hand, and the NSW Police on the other.

The NSW Police motto is Culpam Poena Premit Comes: "Punishment Follows Guilt Swiftly". Its coat of arms features the state badge of New South Wales, a soaring eagle carrying a scroll with the word Nemesis, a wreath and the Crown of the British monarch.

History

The NSW Police has existed in various forms since the foundation of the colony of New South Wales at Sydney in 1788, when Governor Captain Arthur Phillip authorised the formation of a nightwatch to protect the infant town against thieves and petty criminals after dark. From its humble commencement, the NSW Police force has grown to be the largest in Australia and the highest paid.

Like all other States of Australia, municipalities and shires in NSW have no or very limited law enforcement responsibilities. The Australian Federal Police is relatively unobtrusive and is not very visible in the day to day lives of New South Welsh residents. Therefore, state police forces—the NSW Police included—are much more powerful and ubiquitous than equivalent state or provincial police forces in other federal nations such as the United States or Canada, where the total law enforcement task is more evenly shared among three or four tiers of government. New South Wales Police are arguably the highest profile police jurisdiction in the country.

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NSW Police Ford Falcon General Duties patrol sedan in current national police markings. The building in the background photograph is the residential towers (lines) of the New South Wales Police College at Goulburn in Southern New South Wales.

This concentration of policing power in the NSW Police is thought to have led to the multi-generational and endemic levels of corruption, graft and vice that were revealed to the public in the 1990s at the Wood Royal Commission, a State-sponsored judicial inquiry into police corruption led by Justice James Wood of the New South Wales Supreme Court. This Royal Commission which lasted approximately two years uncovered crimes and institutionalised corruption throughout the NSW Police Service (as it was then known) by a small number of officers, most notably detectives. This unexpected discovery by the Royal Commission led to a widening of its terms of reference to include the investigation of paedophilia and sex crimes outside the Police Service and implicated members of the legal fraternity. However some critics argue that the Royal Commission should have been expanded further, but considering the political ramifications that would have resulted, this did not occur.

The biggest impact of the Wood Royal Commission was the uprooting of many corrupt detectives in the force (which, despite the almost daily revelations of depravity and criminality, consisted of only a small minority of the total Police Service) and the establishment of the Police Integrity Commission - an independent, permanent tribunal with some judicial powers that now stands as a permanent watchdog over police corruption, but is not part of the NSW Police (unlike the old Internal Affairs Bureau).

Critics of the Royal Commission argue that it should have had a wider terms of reference, namely NSW Parliament and NSW Criminal Justice System.

However, despite some negativities, the NSW Police have a proud history of service and policing the state of New South Wales.

The New South Wales Mounted Police is the oldest continuous mounted police unit in the world. Founded in September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from a British military regiment stationed in NSW at the time to protect travellers and suppress convict escapees. For over a century they were a key part of policing as horses were the main form of transport.

Duties include traffic and crowd management, patrols, and ceremonial protocol duties.

The 34 horses used today are bay geldings, 16 hands high and include a number of ex-race horses. They are between three and seven years old when received and retire at about 20 years of age.

Timeline

• 1862– Existing forces are amalgamated into the New South Wales Police Force headed by Inspector-General John McLerie under the Police Regulation Act 1862. Sub-districts, each led by Inspectors, are created across the State. Issuing of .36 calibre Colt Navy revolvers begins. Prior to this, police had use of various ineffective single-shot weapons.
• 1871– Police have their wages reduced by sixpence per day. Many leave the Force as a result.
• 1872– 70 new Police Stations established since 1862, with a total of 803 men in the force. Police begin photographing prisoners.
• 1874– Edmund Fosberry becomes Inspector General of Police.
• 1890– The Bertillon system of criminal identification is published by Alphonse Bertillon.
• 1891– Juan Vucetich of Buenos Aires establishes the world's first Fingerprint Registry.
• 1893– Police use bicycles in Sydney and some country areas.
• 1894– Sydney Police are issued with firearms for general use.
• 1900– E.R. Henry refines Vucetich's system of fingerprint identification by dividing print patterns.
• 1903– The Police Fingerprint Branch is established.
• 1911– Ernest Charles Day is appointed Inspector General of Police.
• 1913– Telephones are being introduced into country Police Stations, vastly improving communications.
• 1915– James Mitchell is appointed Inspector General of Police. The Police Prosecuting Branch is established. The first Police patrol car is brought into use in the state. Lillian Armfield and Maude Rhodes are appointed as the first Policewomen in the state.
• 1916– Significant uniform changes occur and a new style of cap and tunic is introduced. Police motor cycles are introduced.
• 1921– The New South Wales Police Association is formed.
• 1924– New South Wales Police begin using wireless telegraphy.
• 1925– The Public Safety Bureau (traffic unit) is established.
• 1927– The Drug Squad and the Police Motor Vehicle Branch are established.
• 1929– The Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) and the Consorting Branch are both established.
• 1930– Walter Henry Childs becomes Commissioner of Police. The Missing Friends Bureau is formed (renamed the Missing Persons Bureau in 1974). The Bogus Agents & Company Squad is formed (renamed the Fraud Squad in 1961). The Modus Operandi Unit and Police Motor Squad are formed.
• 1934– The first New South Wales Police Wireless Room is established.
• 1935– William John McKay becomes Police Commissioner.
• 1937– The Police Radio Telephone System is established.
• 1938– The Police Scientific Investigation Branch is established.
• 1941– The Police Prosecuting Branch is formalised and expanded. The Central Fingerprint Bureau of Australia is established.
• 1942– The Police Cliff Rescue Squad is established.
• 1945– The Police Emergency Squad (precursor to SWOS) established.
• 1946– New South Wales Police have further uniform changes. Open-necked tunics with ties are introduced. The Police Aviation Section is established.
• 1947– The School Lecturing Section is formed.
• 1948– James Frederick Scott becomes Commissioner of Police.
• 1950– The Police Aviation Section is disbanded. It re-emerged as the Police Air Wing in 1979.
• 1952– Colin John Delaney becomes Commissioner of Police.
• 1953– The Police Flood Rescue Squad is established.
• 1958– The New South Wales Police Driver Training School at St Ives is opened.
• 1961– The New South Wales Police have more uniform changes. Tunics become optional dress in summer. There would be no more uniform changes until 1972. There are now 5717 men and women in the New South Wales Police Force, with 1700 serving in country areas.
• 1962– The year of the Centenary of the New South Wales Police Force. There are 507 Police Stations in New South Wales. Norman Thomas Allan becomes Commissioner of Police.
• 1979 - Special Weapons and Operations Squad created.
• 1981 - Tactical Response Group created.
• 1982 - Random Breath Testing was introduced in NSW.
• 1990 - Police Service Act replaced Police Regulation Act.
• 1991 - SWOS & TRG dissolved & State Protection Group created.
• 1997 - GLOCK pistols introduced to replace Smith & Wesson revolvers.
• 1998 - Upgraded Police airwing.
• 1999 - Entire Water Police fleet replaced.
• 2002 - New 'working' uniform including cargo pants, baseball caps, Polartec jackets & Blundstone boots issued.
• 2005 - Police highway patrol cars fitted with In Car Video (ICV).

Organisational Structure

Official NSW Police website organizational structure chart.[1]

Uniform

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Current New South Wales Police uniform insignia

New South Wales Police has two uniforms for general duties police officers, one operational and one ceremonial.

The Operational Police Uniform consists of navy blue cargo pants with map pockets, ballooned at the bottom, light blue marle short or long sleeve shirt, navy blue baseball cap with blue and white chequered band (fluorescent yellow caps are worn by the seconded Central Business District Street Policing Unit - a High Visibility unit in the City of Sydney (mostly still a temporary and trial basis) and general purpose boots. During winter the leather duty jacket is worn mostly in the Sydney Metro area, whilst in the rural or provincial areas of the state, a navy blue Polartec jacket is worn.

The Operational Police Uniform of the NSW Police is perhaps one of the most paramilitary police uniforms in Australia.

During ANZAC day marches and United Nations Day marches in Sydney, New South Wales Police can be seen alongside their Australian Federal Police counterparts wearing the distinctive United Nations blue beret and full sized medals, if they have served with the Australian Federal Police in peacekeeping operations.

New South Wales Police are also entitled to wear Mess dress with Mess kit for black tie or formal dinners/dances. The dark navy blue trousers and mess jacket with cobalt blue cuffs, eppalettes (with ranks) and lapels clearly identify them as being members of the New South Wales Police.

Specialist units (Airwing, Marine Area Command, State Protection Group Tactical Operations Unit, State Protection Group Dog Unit, Rescue Squad, Bomb Squad, Mounted Police Unit, Operations Support Group, Highway Patrol, Public Order and Riot Squad amongst others all have different uniform needs and are outfitted accordi