The ACT's spending on police services increased marginally from the previous financial year but still remains the lowest in Australia in the latest report on government services issued by the Productivity Commission.
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The report noted the ACT had 749 sworn, full time officers in 2022-23, up from 701 the previous reporting year, while the number of unsworn civilian staff rose from 215 to 242.
The report found spending by the ACT government on policing is increasing but as ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan and the federal police association, which represents the rank and file officers, has repeatedly stated, the population of Canberra and its immediate surrounding region is rising far faster than the rate of the police numbers to serve it.
Recurrent expenditure on policing in the ACT has grown by 2.1 per cent from five years ago, below the national average of 3.7 per cent.
Real expenditure on policing per head of population in the ACT in 2022-23 was $478.17, the lowest in Australia and well below the national average of $596.94.
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan, who will leave the top job in late March, said that the ACT Government last year committed $107 million in additional funding for 126 new staff over the next five years.
"As I have said numerous times before, any Chief Police Officer or police jurisdiction anywhere in the country could do with more police, and the ACT is no different."
The ACT government regularly uses the explanation that the ACT has a smaller geographical area to cover than all other jurisdictions however, even given this advantage, local police response times to high volume priority two and three incidents have fallen, revealing the reality that fewer police are available to respond.
Police services in the ACT are provided by the Australian Federal Police under a contractual five-year purchasing agreement which is due for renegotiation again in 2026. In the most recent financial year, that contract was worth $205 million.
While there are many positives in this relationship for the ACT government, including the provision of a world-class forensics capability, the Productivity Commission report revealed that one of the main issues with the contractual arrangement is that in the ACT, police can generate little or no revenue from their resources.
The report found just $1.5 million per cent of net recurrent expenditure comes from ACT police resources, compared with the $51.5 million which Tasmania's police force - which serves a similarly-sized population to the ACT - generates from within.
As government spending on police staggers slowly upwards, the ACT 2022-23 ACT Policing annual report revealed that total offences against persons increased by 16.3 per cent over the previous year while property offences dropped by 13.5 per cent.
Some of the other concerning outcomes from the latest report were those generated from public surveys. In general, ACT's police force has performed well in these surveys down through the years.
However, in the 2022-23 surveys there was a notable decline in the total satisfaction by the surveyed public in ACT police services, down from 76.3 per cent in the previous reporting year to 68.7 per cent, the lowest in 10 years.
The same 10-year low in satisfaction rating was reported among those who had come into contact with police in the previous 12 months.
"We want to provide the best policing service to the ACT as possible, and while metrics like satisfaction always ebb and flow, we do take any drop in these ratings seriously," Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said.
"The results of this report will be considered in order to address any potential issues and look for ways we can improve our operations."
Public satisfaction with the integrity of ACT police was strong at 81.3 per cent but has steadily fallen since 2016-17, when it stood at a nation-leading 90.4 per cent.
