The ACT's new Chief Police Officer, Rudi Lammers, says he will ''make sure that front-line policing is not affected" by a $15 million budget cut as he takes the reins of the local Australian Federal Police force.
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Chief Police Officer Lammers, a career police officer who holds a law degree, has the challenge of reducing crime in the ACT with 10 per cent less of its $150 million annual budget.
"My job is to make sure the level of policing in the community is not diminished - that the public still get the responsiveness that they need and expect - so what I'll be focusing on is looking at a lot of the back-end processes to make sure we can become much more efficient," he said. It is a task he is well placed to tackle, with more than 20 years' service in Canberra, including almost every police station, and having worked in general duties, criminal investigations, on task forces and in support and leadership roles.
"He managed ACT Policing's human resources area, where he implemented a range of new HR policies linking police education to investigative outcomes," Minister for Police and Emergency Services Simon Corbell said in announcing his appointment.
"[He] also led ACT Policing's brief management, coroner's office, traffic adjudication, firearms' registry and warrants' execution."
Before his latest appointment, Assistant Commissioner Lammers was chief information officer at AFP headquarters.
He assumes the role of chief police officer from the Deputy Chief Police Officer David Pryce, who has been acting in the role since Roman Quaedvlieg left in April to be the deputy head of Customs Service.
Chief Police Officer Lammers said he would make community engagement a priority. "Policing has changed over the years, particularly with advances in technology, but our need for partnerships with the community is now more important than ever," he said.
"The things the public are particularly concerned about is feeling safe: making sure that family and kids can go out at night and come home safely; making sure the streets are safe; making sure that motor vehicle accidents remain low; the fatalities on our roads remain low.
''We will do that through structured campaigns, as we've done over the last couple of years.
''Whether it's high visibility policing … walking the beat on the cold Canberra nights or chasing drug traffickers around the world, we have a responsibility to make the community feel safer. We do that and will continue to do that very well.''
Chief Police Officer Lammers joined the police force in 1982, and worked alongside the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus 20 years ago when they were both constables.
"I have personal experience of his qualities and his attitudes towards community policing, which is of the highest order," Commissioner Negus said. "In recent years, ACT Policing has produced among some of the very best outcomes in community policing in any jurisdiction in the country, and only last week the minister and I signed the new policing agreement, which sets the bar even higher in that regard."
