Law enforcement in Australia

Law enforcement in Australia is served by police, sheriffs and bailiffs under the control of state, territory and the Federal governments. A number of state, territory and federal agencies also administer a wide variety of legislation related to white-collar crime.

The police are responsible for the criminal law. The sheriff and bailiffs in each state and territory are responsible for the enforcement of the judgments of the courts exercising civil law (common law) jurisdictions. In Australia, there are two levels of police forces, the state police and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The AFP is only 25 years old whilst State Police Forces were established in the 1800s.

Commonwealth law enforcement agencies

 * Australian Federal Police (AFP)
 * Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
 * Australian Crime Commission (ACC)
 * Australian Customs Service (ACS)
 * Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS)
 * Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
 * Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

National common policing services
The Australasian Police Professional Standards Council (APPSC) was an organisation that served all Police Jurisdictions around Australia and New Zealand. APPSC was the peak body for police education and training in Australia and New Zealand, the Council comprising each of the Police Commissioners from Australia and New Zealand along with the President of the Police Federation of Australia and the President of the New Zealand Police Association. On 9 November 2007, APPSC Directorate was closed and the roles and functions were amalgamated into the ANZPAA the last Executive Director of APPSC being Mr Ian J. Lanyon who then returned to Victoria Police.

Australasian Institute of Policing
The Australasian Institute of Policing (AIPol) is a non-industrial, not-for-profit incorporated association that has been established by practitioners, for practitioners to further the policing profession. As such, it is the professional body for Australian and New Zealand policing and has been established with the object to:


 * promote the policing profession;
 * promote professional practice standards within the policing profession;
 * endorse education related to the policing profession;
 * certify individual police practitioners;
 * develop, promote and encourage ethical standard of policing practice;
 * to facilitate the sharing of research and information as to best practice policing;
 * to enhance public confidence in the police profession and the service provided to the public by members of the policing profession; and
 * to promote professional mobility of police practitioners.

AIPol provides a number of categories of membership for Australian and New Zealand police practitioners and associates, including Associate Member, Member and Fellow.

The Australian Hi-Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) is a national policing initiaitve to combat high tech crimes, including crimes committed with or against computers or communication systems (computer crime) like malicious hacking, and traditional crimes which are largely facilitated by technology like child pornography and money laundering.

Crime Stoppers programs run in each state and nationally. Crime Stoppers collects information about crime and passes it on to the police ensuring that the community can participate in crime fighting.

CrimTrac is an intergovernmental policing agency that supports Australian policing through the provision of forensic and other information and investigative tools between State and Federal Police Departments. The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) is national fingerprint database, administered by CrimTrac.

State
Each State as well as the Northern Territory is responsible for maintaining its own police force which is responsible for policing at the state and local level. This involves general law and order, traffic policing, major crime, anti-terrorism branches, water police, search and rescue and in some states transit police. Local policing in the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory and Australia's external territories is contracted to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

In some states, local governments employ by-laws officers or rangers to enforce local by-laws or ordinances relating to such matters as parking, dog ownership, retailing, littering or water usage. These local government officers are not considered to be police forces as they generally only have the power to issue fines and do not have the same powers as state police. They may rely upon appointment as a Special Constable or legislated powers for their authority.

Policing agencies
State police also perform certain functions on behalf of the Australian Government such as the enforcement of various Commonwealth Acts and Regulations in conjunction with the Australian Federal Police and other Commonwealth officers.

While the Australian Capital Territory Police is under the jurisdiction of the Australian Federal Police, the following policing agencies are regulated by their respective State or Territory Government and are highly visible:
 * New South Wales Police Force
 * Northern Territory Police
 * Queensland Police Service
 * South Australia Police
 * Tasmania Police
 * Victoria Police
 * Western Australia Police

Sheriffs
In recent years, the states and territories have been returning responsibility for the recovering of court ordered fines to their sheriffs responsibility. In practice, the police often carry out the functions of sheriffs and bailiffs in the country and more sparsely populated areas of Australia.

Transportation
Police cars in Australia use white predominately, with a checkered strip on the side. New Queensland police cars also have pink stipes on them. Australian police services predominantly use a mix of Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons as patrol cars, as well as prisoner transport units based on light commercial vehicles such as the Holden Rodeo and Holden Crewman.