Australian Capital Territory Police

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Australian Capital Territory Police or ACT Police provides community policing services for the Australian Capital Territory in Canberra, Australia's capital city.

Headed by a Chief Police Officer, currently Audrey Fagan, it consists of over 830 persons of which approximately 515 are sworn police personnel. Unlike other State / Territory Police Forces of Australia - the ACT Chief Police Officer is at a lower rank (Assistant Commissioner) which is probably due to the small numbers policing the ACT and the small crimes reported therein.

The ACT Police is a subdivision of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the service does not appear distinct from the AFP in terms of the uniforms officers wear, badging on vehicles etc. It is officially referred to by the AFP as "ACT Policing".

ACT Policing consists of four police stations (patrols) located in the Canberra town hubs of Belconnen, City, Woden and Tuggeranong. Uniformed Australian Federal Police officers based at these stations provide general duties community policing for the ACT. Uniformed traffic operations members also work from City Police Station and primarily focus on road safety and traffic law enforcement within the ACT.

Winchester Police Centre located in Belconnen, is ACT Policing headquarters containing administrative sections and the ACT Policing executive, as well as members of the Territory Investigations Group (TIG).

The TIG provide the plain clothes criminal investigation detective function for the ACT and have members based in each police station, as well as in the Winchester Police Centre.

The Specialist Response and Security (SRS) section of ACT Policing provides a full time tactical operations unit who also perform search and rescue and riot control duties, a K9 section and bomb squad.

The community policing functions of the Australian Federal Police in Canberra is similar to that of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police .

As distinct from AFP officers engaged in National duties who are referred to as "Federal Agents", sworn police officer in ACT Policing use the traditional titles/ranks of:

Constable, Senior Constable, Sergeant, Superintendent, Commander.

Those who have sufficient experience and passed various internal requirements may also use the title "Detective" - eg Detective Senior Constable.