Australia Police

[Wannabe Trooper]

I am currently a grade 12 student and a Canadian Citizen. I have been browsing through some of Australia's different police websites lately, and have been really interested in alot of what they have to offer, as well as what the country in general has to offer. I have a few questions about pursuing an law enforcement career in Australia.

Can a Canadian Citizen become a police officer in Australia?
What would make an applicant to a police force in Australia give themselves an extra edge over other applicants?
What are the job prospects like for any future candidate?
Will a two years police studies diploma done in Canada help a candidate in the application process?
Are their any police studies type of courses in Australia?

Thanks for the responses.

[NSWCop]

G'day Wannabe Trooper:

Australia, as you no doubt know, has 9 different Police juristictions. They are:

(1) Australian Federal Police - (Similar in scope to the American FBI or the RCMP)
and in no particular order:

(2) New South Wales Police: (www.police.nsw.gov.au)
The largest Police force in Australia
(3) Victoria Police:
(4) Queensland Police Service
(5) South Australia Police
(6) Western Australian Police
(7) Tasmanian Police
(8) Northern Territory Police
(9) The Australian Federal Police in the Australian Capital Territory (responsible for "regular" policing in that territory).

Generally speaking, as a Commonwealth citizen you are eligible to join the NSW Police. And, I am reasonably sure that the other agencies have a similar policy.

I suggest you research a bit more as to whether or not you can transfer academic qualifications to the agency of your choice. In NSW you will have to contact the Board of Studies to see if you qualifications are adequate.
A University degree in just about any subject is welcome in NSW, but you can apply with a year 12 Certificate, but you may not have as good a chance of getting in.
I have been told that there is currently a 3 month waiting list for entry into the NSW Police College.
I believe that South Australia and Western Australia are actively recruiting at the moment.

Best of luck and please PM me for further info..

[co911]

As much as I hate disagreeing with nswcop (kidding mate), he is wrong about the eligibility based upon Commonwealth citizenship. There is no provision in any Australian police dept's recruiting criteria to accept Commonwealth Citizens. If they did they would likely be rushed by English bobbies. The NZ Police however, did run a successful recruiting campaign in the UK for a short time.

NSW:
Requires that you be an Australian citizen or an Australian permenent resident.

Victoria:
You must be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident. Commonwealth citizens must have the right to live permanently in Australia.

AFP:
Do I have to be an Australian Citizen to apply for employment by the AFP?
No. You should be aware however that to be eligible to be engaged as an AFP employee, there is an expectation that you will be an Australian citizen. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Commissioner consider engaging a person who is not an Australian citizen.

South Australia:
Requires that you be an Australian citizen or an Australian permenant resident

Western Australia:
Requires that you be an Australian citizen or an Australian permenant resident

Tasmania:
Australian citizen or full time resident

Queensland:
You must either be an Australian permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen residing in Australia. Proof of permanent residency or citizenship is required when submitting your application.

NT:
be Australian citizens or have permanent resident status.

Wannabe Trooper (you'll have to give up any hopes of becoming a trooper if you relocate to Oz by the way), what are your reasons for wanting to move? Canada has some superb police depts, RCMP, Calgary, Vancouver, and seems to be pretty advanced as far as policing is concerned. I'm interested in your motivation to go to Oz.

[Wannabe Trooper]

I would like to live in another culture, plus I think that Australia has pretty nice weather from what I've heard. Plus alot of the police departments in Australia have really sparked my interest, and seem like some of the nicer departments I've seen lately. I have also heard that Australia has a really beautiful landscape. However if a commonwealth citizen cannot apply, then I might as well stay in Canada and apply here. I thought that since British applicants were allowed to apply to departments in New Zealand and Australia that the same would apply for Canadian's.

[NSWCop]

I once again find myself in agreement with my pedantic friend co911.

Things have tightened up a mite and my info was out of date.

wannabe trooper: check out this site www.immi.gov.au

It is the site for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Check out the Permanent Residency section.
I don't know your circumstances, so I can't say if you would be eligible.

As mentioned earlier, why not stay in Canada? It is from all accounts a great place to live and work.

And, if memory serves me correctly (no doubt co911 will correct me if I am wrong) the Toronto PD will accept applicants with a High School Diploma.

[crashman]

Wannabe Trooper.

They are right, you need Citizenship. Once you have that then you can apply to any of the state police forces.

Citizenship is not as hard to get as it is in the US, I was over there in 98 and thought about crossing my policing over to the US, but the Citizenship would have meant that I would have to live there for 10 years first before I could even apply.

That was a 10 year break in policing I didn't want to do.

Once you have citzenship you complete like averyone else to join. In my department previous police service anywhere in the world is accredited towards your service for promotion.

Recruiting is ongoing, unless it has changed in the last couple of years since I was teaching at the Academy, we used to induct 30 recruits every month just to cover resignations and retirement.

Current the Step Forward Campaing is ongoing.
http://www.stepforward.wa.gov.au/home.php

I am unsure if Canadians can have dual citizenship, I have it with Australia and England. If you have to give up your citizenship to come here, you might later change your mind and find you can't get your old Canadian Citizenship back...!!!!

Policing in Australia is very differnt to the US is some aspects, I am not sure of the Canadian perspective though.

To give you an idea.

Recruit training is done like the military in some respects.
- You apply and are recruited
- They train and pay you
- You graduate and are posted somewhere

The discipline is not anything like the military.

You can vary your duty at your own request, i.e. traffic patrol, general duty, forensic, mounted, k9, water police, airwing, Detective the list goes on and on.

The state police are the only police, there are no county sherrifs or city police. As a state police officer your jurisdiction is the Whole state and in my case that is 1,600,000 square miles, nearly half the size of the US and thirteen times the size of the entire United kingdom.

My agency recognises previous police service and educational trainng and will recognise Prior Learning.

I know back in 1997 we had a former RCMP Sergeant come through the Academy, I walked the beat with him after he graduated, had long chats about policing, as a day one graduate he acted and worked like a veteran and would not have expected less considering his background..

[Wannabe Trooper]

Well Australia has really sparked my interest, guess I really wanted to get away from the cold. But right now more than anything I'm anxious to become a police constable, I'm afraid more than anything that I won't be hired on till I'm about 30, I would like to get hired on once I hit 21. But with Australia for me it's kindof like starting up a new life from home. Plus it seems like alot of the police forces their are really professional, and that the training is awesome.

I was looking at moving to the United States, but even when I think that it would take me atleast 10 years before I can get my citizenship or even a permanent residency.

As a state police officer your jurisdiction is the Whole state and in my case that is 1,600,000 square miles, nearly half the size of the US and thirteen times the size of the entire United kingdom.


But I would take a guess that you'd have something like a detachment were your posted and just have a smaller area to patrol. Much akin to the RCMP or State Police down in the States. I was really interested in joining up with a police force in Australia, but if I even have to wait maybe two years before even applying then I don't think I'd bother. Especially when I can start applying in Canada, maybe get a job as a police constable and maybe try transferring to an Australian Police Force.


Thanks for all the responses.

[co911]

My close buddy nswcop forgot to add the word "accurate" to his description of my information.

There are some interesting theories being forwarded on this post and I'd like to address a couple of them.

The first is Crashman's assessment of becoming a US citizen.
"I would have to live there for 10 years first before I could even apply".
I'm not aware of any immigration process which takes "10 yrs" to become a US citizen. Which immigration route were you going to pursue which would have taken this long? Wannabe Trooper also alluded to the "10 yr" description, which is inaccurate as far as I know. In any event you don't need to be a US citizen to become a police officer here.

Be aware also Wannabe Trooper that Crashman is referring only to his dept (WAPS) when he discusses police recruiting and academy practises. It is not the case in NSW (or, shortly, Victoria), that the police dept pays you to attend the academy. Quite the opposite in fact, as you pay your own way. Academy life in NSW is largely similar to that of a university campus, so much so that the academy is called a "college".

I'm going to get into trouble with the Ockers for this but from where Wannabe Trooper, did you arrive at this conclusion:
"seems like alot of the police forces their are really professional, and that the training is awesome".

While there are some very dedicated and professional cops in Oz, they have more than their fair share of serious issues, including corruption, a biase media, lack of resources and an unsupportive judiciary, especially in NSW. Victoria and the South Australian Police depts still issue revolvers to cops. Unlike Canadian depts, not a single Australian PD routinely issues shotguns or rifles, no patrol officers are issued with beanbag shotguns and they do not have access to tasers. If you research police officer to citizen ratios you will find that Australian depts are massively understaffed.

Concerning the "awesome training", I have heard nothing but complaints from Australian cops about the lack of training. NSWP are authorized for example to shoot about 86 rounds in practise per year during a 1 hr session. Total. It is not unusual in parts of Sydney to wait 40 mins for a K9 officer to respond. In other areas, such as Blacktown, my information is that officers can take days to respond to a cold burglary due to more pressing calls.

This should not be taken as a criticism of the individual cops, but of their depts which fail to sufficiently resource or fund them. So I'm kind of curious to know where your information comes from? If you are serious about your move, it would be wise to first visit Oz and discover the reality of law enforcement Down Under.

[oscarmitre]

WT

Become a cop in Canada first. You have some excellent police departments and of course the RCMP and I think that the pay and conditions are superior to those in Australia even allowing for the differences in cost of living (eg cost of living in Toronto or Vancouver is pretty high and probably higher than in similar places in Australia).

Learn the trade in your familiar cultural context. If you still want to come here then go for it. My force (South Australia) has changed its previous restrictions (which were stupid) to accept Commonwealth citizens (but please check because who the heck knows what they'll do next week :D )

------

Cheers there 911 :)

[ChrisF202]

Ive got 2 questions of my own about Australian law enforcement:

1) Do all police carry guns?
2) Do Australian sheriff's do any police work or just civil process and court security?

[oscarmitre]

Originally posted by ChrisF202
Ive got 2 questions of my own about Australian law enforcement:

1) Do all police carry guns?
2) Do Australian sheriff's do any police work or just civil process and court security?

1. To the best of my knowledge all forces here require members on operational duties to carry operational equipment which includes firearms.
2. In Australia Sheriff's officers are not equivalent to those officers in the US and here they are concerned mainly with civil process matters and court security. I believe the state of Victoria though has a broader law enforcement role for its Sheriff's Officers but I'm not from that state so I may be wrong.

[crashman]

Sheriffs here simply work the courts, Bailiffs do the local court collections, proivate contractors handle all security.

Our dept has 6 month requalifications on critical skills (F/arms) once every 6 months minimum, I like to go every 3 if I can.

Glock 22 is the order of the day, Remmington 12 guage pump action and Seiko 5.56 bolt action rifles CAN be carried, The usual local patrol cars do not carry the long arms, there are enough specialist cars on the road to make up any shortfull. The most usual 12 guage has the folding stock with pistl grip, most of the public are unaware it is in the car.

CO911, it ws back in 1998 I looked into it, that was the total time to apply, get residency et ctec, There was a thread th eother week oin citizenship and I think Chicago is the only PD that doens't require citizenship.

I actually met the new US Consul the other day about a death of a US police officer over there and the subject came up about timeframes for US citizenship to be a police officer, he said 5 yrs. Thats 5 yrs out of policing if I wanted to switch,... too long.:(

We have comparable police to citizen ratios as the rest of the world. The biggest problem here is distance. I was amazed when I was in Miami, the city is about the physical size of Perth, however has 14 million compared to our 1.5 million people.

We have tried to diversify our policing to adopt best worlds practice, however we don't have the staff to do everything, so we get a but thin on the ground trying to do everything.

[co911]

Crashman, don't take this personally but I don't know where you are getting your info from but it is off the mark. There is no immigration process, family, employment, marriage etc which takes ten yrs to achieve citizenship. My buddies with INS tell me it has never taken that long to become a citizen.

"I think Chicago is the only PD that doens't require citizenship."
Chicago is one of dozens of depts in at least 4 states which don't require citizenship.

"I was amazed when I was in Miami, the city is about the physical size of Perth, however has 14 million compared to our 1.5 million people."
The city of Miami has a population of about 365,000. Even Miami-Dade county has only 2.5 million people. By your calculations, Miami would be nearly twice as big as New York, America's largest city.

"We have comparable police to citizen ratios as the rest of the world."
America's police to citizen ratio on average is about 2.5 cops for every 1,000 citizens. Australia has around 2.1 officers per 1,000 people.

"the subject came up about timeframes for US citizenship to be a police officer, he said 5 yrs. Thats 5 yrs out of policing if I wanted to switch,... too long."

Not if you marry a US citizen, it would be 3 yrs, and since, with dozens of depts you don't need citizenship to be a cop here, it doesn't matter, you could continue as an officer with a green card.

Nothing personal intended.

[Marky Mark]

My wife's citizen ship took about 6 1/2 years from the day we were married. There is a "fast track" for citizenship if you serve in the U.S. Military, but I don't know the details. A stint in the military will benefit you throughout your life, whether you do LE work or not. Some departments have preferential hiring for military, also.

Also, after a tour of duty in the Foriegn Legion, you may qualify to serve in the Gendarmerie...:p

[crashman]

co911, maybe I got my stats wrong on that one, I was sure I was informed that population of Miami was 14 million, maybe that is the population of Florida??

I am not getting any younger,,hahaha, already done my time soldiering before I joined policing. At the time (1998) I looked into this that was the time frame that was muted for getting it all sorted and so on so I thought better of it.

As for ratios, (source http://www.aic.gov.au/policing/stats/2003/)
Australia : states and territories

Number of sworn police officers and rate per 100 000 population as at 30 June 2003
Jurisdiction Number Rate per 100 000 population*
New South Wales.....14739....220.4
Victoria............10691....217.4
Queensland..........8704.....229.2
Western Australia...5063.....259.3
South Australia.....3916.....256.4
Tasmania............1118.....234.3
Northern Territory...974.....490.9
Australian Capital Territory..628....194.5

Australia **.......48130.....242.1


Our patrol area is 2,526,786 sq kilometres (975597.5 sq miles), here it is not lack of coppers, it is the tyranny of distance.

My duties require me to attend every part of this state to conduct my investigations and sometimes it is a six hour drive and other times it is several hours flying...then six hours driving....that does hurt.

Changing subject, the other day I mentioned I had to visit the local US consul, well I had to go again and this time I was with another officer from my office, (ex US Marine, now West Aussie copper).

We got talking about policing and citizenship. Believe it or not YOU DO NOT have to be an Australian Citizen to join the Western Australia Police Service, all you need is permanent residence status. Apparently you had to have citizenship before, but they have removed it.

Nothing like shifting lines in the sand.

BTW...nothing personal taken..hehehe

:D :D

[x0xStrickenx0x]

Hey everyone! I'm just curious on a few things, maybe someone can answer my questions here. Firstly, I heard from a police officer that works in SAPD that the standard firearm is a .357 Revolver, is this true? Also heard that the SAPD are now doing a semi-automatic training to possibly let semi-autos be used and not just revolvers (in my opinion using semi-autos is a much better choice, do to many reasons). Anyways, I'm not a police officer yet, I don't even live in Australia yet, but am planning on moving as soon as I get my debt taken care of. Also, these two people have been constantly pressing charges on me for things I didn't do (go figure, had a fight with him, and suddenly he presses charges, it gets dropped, than his girlfriend goes in and does it). I know that I have to present all of my background information including charges against me even if they were dropped, so will these lower my chances of getting accepted into the academy? I already e-mailed the SAPD telling them my qualifications and my medical conditions, and they replied that due to the qualifications I have my application would be processed when I apply. So, anyone know on how quickly I can get Australian Permanent Residency, or if I could apply for a Skilled Worker Visa if I can get the SAPD to say that they want me to work for them? I see that being the quickest way to get my permanent residency, but I don't know if they would do that for me. Also, I completed 12th grade, but it was in the U.S.A. but I have my papers proving that, so will it be a problem since I did the schooling in America? I'm sure I'll think of some more questions later on, because I don't want to make this post any longer than it already is (don't feel like annoying everyone). I'd appreciate it if you could possibly answer some if not all of these questions. Thank you!

[co911]

SAP won't be generally carrying semi autos before 2010 at the rate at which Aussie depts transition to pistols. It took the NSW Police four years to achieve this. The SAPS recruits from overseas police officers, they don't sponsor non-police to come to Australia so unless you are already an officer you don't qualify. Immigration to Australia is not an easy thing to accomplish in any case.

[thomas26]

Hi,


Chicago is one of dozens of depts in at least 4 states which don't require citizenship.


which agencies dont require citzenship? I'm searching a way to become Police Officer in the USA but I'm none U.S. citizen.
Currently I'm Police Officer in Germany and I'm German citizen.

[Munlaw]

Wisconsin Cannot find any information as per a state requirement for Citizenship. Most departments websites require it – however the State police DOES NOT.



Hi,

which agencies dont require citzenship? I'm searching a way to become Police Officer in the USA but I'm none U.S. citizen.
Currently I'm Police Officer in Germany and I'm German citizen.

A German like you would fit into the Wisconsin State Patrol very well :D

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/about/hr/jobs/trooper-insp/eligibility.htm

[Stephan9C1]

Hi,
which agencies dont require citzenship? I'm searching a way to become Police Officer in the USA but I'm none U.S. citizen.
Currently I'm Police Officer in Germany and I'm German citizen.

Hi thomas, good luck with your plans. I was thinking about leaving the police over here as well back in 2000 to become a LEO in the U.S.. But then I met my (now-)wife and I'm still over here:D :D :D.
Where in North-Rhine Westphalia are you stationed? I'm with the KPB Wesel/ PI West.

Stephan

[thomas26]

Hi Stephan,

since Police Academy (PAI Stukenbrock, Jahrgang 99/10) I'm stationed in the PP Wuppertal. Currently I serve in the 10. BPH (ich Vollidiot hab mich letztes Jahr freiwillig gemeldet... :rolleyes: )
My Girlfriend, hopefully my wife someday, wants to leave with me.
Right now I found more than 70 agencies with no citizenship requirement for employment.
I'll visit the southwest of the USA this month. After that I'll contact our IPA- President to ask him for some help in reaching my goal.

[Stephan9C1]

Hi Thomas, a friend of mine who is also with PP Wuppertal just has finished his F2-class. He spent two weeks with the Los Angeles County Sheriff as part of his "Praktikum" which had also been supported by the IPA and PP Hagen where he studied. You might know him. If it's ok with you I contact him about your plans and you two might get in contact. Should be easy since you work for the same department.

Stephan