Australia: Decentralized Policing
Australia is a federal state with six states. Each state has its police force. Policing in Australia is decentralized. On the other hand, France has centralized policing; its national structure consists of two chief institutions: National Police and National Germandalie. Many municipalities have their own local policing organizations as well. The National police operate under the authority of Ministry of Interior. It is tasked with maintaining law and order in large urban areas. The NP coordinates security operations such as personality checks, controlling the traffic and other patrols (Hufnagel, 2016). All the six states of Australia and the Northern Territory are served by their own independent police forces (Hufnagel, 2016). The French model of policing cannot be implemented successfully in Australia.
Compatibility of the French Model in Australia
Compatibility of the French Model of policing to that of Australia can be gauged by an in-depth study of the policing models of the two countries. First, the policing model of Australia uses a centralized, state-based policing system. Police organizations in Australia are not just state-based and centralized but are also large unlike in other European countries (Brain, 2010). Uniquely, they operate through intricate bureaucratized systems and are fully accountable to the citizens via the minister, a member of parliament elected by the public as the minister for police. The commissioner of police (who is the head of all police) reports to the citizens through the minister who acts as a representative of parliament.
Federal Policing in Australia
Australia has several federal policing bodies though its design of policing which based at the state level. All the six states of Australia and the Northern Territory are served by their independent police institutes. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) exists through a federal law (de Maillard, Hunold, Roché, " Oberwittler, 2018). The AFP is charged with the responsibility of enacting federal law enforcement such as detention, prevention and investigation of drug crimes, money valet among other activities. Transnational offenses, and crimes against the Commonwealth and other forms of organized offenses. AFP is the organization that provides elementary policing services for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (Perry, Jonathan-Zamir, " Weisburd, 2017). Among the many state-based policing organizations the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) provides organized national intelligence designed for giving data for policing activities.
Policing in Remote Areas
It is important to note that Australia is a large country but has a small population. Majority of the Australia population is densely distributed along the coastal regions and urban centers (Emsley, 2017). Therefore, Australian law enforcement institutions are needed to offer security services in remote areas in addition to large metropolitan quarters. Some of the remote areas where policing services are needed can only be accessed by use of boat or plane; this makes police force structure is quite different. There are regions of the state where police officers are also required to act as prosecutors. In other local areas police are helped by partially trained community members to maintain law and order when they cannot reach the areas.
Centralized Policing in France
French policing is managed centrally; it is a national structure consisting of two chief institutions: National Police and National Germandalie. Many municipalities have their own local policing organizations as well (McCarty, " Lawrence, 2016). The National police operate under the authority of Ministry of Interior. It is tasked with maintaining law and order in large urban areas. The NP coordinates security operations such as personality checks, controlling the traffic and other patrols. NP also conducts criminal interrogation when under orders of judiciary magistrates. The other police institution: GN police institution has the elementary responsibility of maintaining law and order in small towns and rural areas. Gendarmerie Nationale polices airport and shipping stations and military installations. GN is a military force with a structure highly centralized (Wilcock, 2016). It is accountable to both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior due to its civic responsibilities. Both the National Police and the Gendarmerie have a centralized leadership structure and exercise orthodox control responsibilities but in different locations of France (Ribaux, Crispino " Roux, 2015). The wing responsible for Paris and other metropolitan areas is the National Police while the GN is tasked with maintaining law and order in small cities and rural areas which have less that 10,000 citizens (Wilcock, 2016). In simple terms, both GN and NP have the same objectives and ascriptions but they execute them in different locations this may sometimes result in competition or misunderstandings between the two wings of the police. To solve this problem merging them has been proposed regularly.
Policing and Society in Australia and France
A step by step consideration of the relationship between policing and the society, state and other institutions in both France and Australia need to be made to evaluate whether the France model of policing can be implemented in Australia. Police activities in different countries can be explained by the ilk of crimes committed in a place and the methods applied by the offenders in committing the crimes. For example, Australian police are usually armed because most criminals use firearms to commit the offenses; the same applies to the French police. The population of the countries should also be considered so as to determine which policing model fits best (McCarty, " Lawrence, 2016). Australia is geographically bigger than France, however, France has thrice the population of Australia making it a very densely populated country. Policing in densely populated areas is very different from policing in large areas with sparse population. Policing remote rural areas is totally different from policing metropolitan areas. Australia has many remote areas as compared to France.
Community Influence on Policing
Australia has far smaller communities than France. In smaller communities, people are familiar with each other and they are ashamed of breaking the law for fear of losing the esteem of their community members. In some instances, the offenders may be avoided or ostracized by other community members. In Australia police in charging of small communities in remote rural areas receive aid from partially trained community members and this is aided by the fact that most people do not want to get involved in crimes for the fear of being outcasts in the society (Mazerolle, Marchetti, " Lindsay, 2003). France, on the other hand, does not have these small communities and the majority of people have no motivation to avoid crime that is why the police force cannot be assisted by partially trained members of the community as is the case in Australia.
Centralized vs Decentralized Policing
Rural and sparsely populated areas, like Australia, are best policed by one centralized- and in most cases militarized- police force. This is not the case in Australia which is policed by different federal police. Each state has an independent police force. France is an example that applies a centralized police force. One unified police system under one command is more cost-effective and carries out its operations more efficiently than several independent police systems (Brain, 2010). In Australia, the territory needed to be covered is huge, in some cases only accessible by ship or plane, and may have terrain difficult which to navigate through, the police in such territories are required to have long-range mobility and the ability to adapt. In policing large communities, technological advancements have made the type of crimes prevalent in such communities different from those that exist in rural areas. For such societies, new laws have to be put in place (Hufnagel, 2016).
Political Culture and Policing
Another factor is the political culture of Australia. The political culture of a country influences the police forces to either become organized locally or nationally. Decentralized police forces are closer to the community and the advantage of this is that police can be adapted to meet the specific needs of the people (Ribaux, Crispino " Roux, 2015). Australia adopts a decentralized police system due to the small communities in the remote rural areas (Ribaux, Crispino " Roux, 2015). A decentralized police system has its own problems such as corruption both by the police their political chiefs due to a poor relationship. Decentralized police system makes the flow of intelligence information between the constituents of the police structure difficult.
The Case for Centralization in Australia
Australia may need to review her current policing structure. The two major issues with a decentralized structure of policing are accountability and expenses. Both problems have solutions which can be implemented by moving to a centralized system. The amount of money required for equipping decentralized system of policing is quite high. The issues with accountability and cost-effectiveness can be solved by making policing centralized. One, the cost can be saved by equipping the police force from one point rather than having each state in Australia spend money to staff their police force. On the other hand, centralizing the police force will eliminate accountability issues since the whole police force will have a point of authority to report to (Ribaux, Crispino " Roux, 2015).
Historical Influence on Australian Policing
Policing in Australia has been influenced by its history and its colonial past. The east coast of Australia was first colonized by the Brits in 1770 by Captain James Cook (Rawlings, 2013). The responsibility for maintaining law and order was first done by military officers who executed civil jurisdiction and later by magistrates (or Justice) of peace who received help from constables recruited from reformed convicts and free settlers. The newly arrived settlers and freed convicts moved westwards and these were costly on the Aboriginal dwellers whose lands and laws they displaced. They were able to displace their land and laws as they were assisted by the colonial government and its imperial 'civilizing project' (Rawlings, 2013). The Aborigines were kicked out of their lands and put into confined areas and put under the authority of protectorates which greatly minimized indigenous independence. Colonial police played a very crucial role in this activities sometimes using force to remove the Australian people from their traditional lands. The paramilitary kind of policing has affected the relationship between police and the Aboriginal people to date.
Formation of Australian Police Forces
The population of Australian grew rapidly growing over the 19th century especially with the increase of the colonies (Ribaux, Crispino " Roux, 2015). Migration persisted in large numbers, the newly- established Australian colonies were run by the centralized government, this is a condition that later on was adopted into Australian policing. Australian police force was arranged on a colony-wide basis unlike the localized and smaller police forces of other European countries. The Australian police forces were tasked with enforcing the law in large countryside territories stretching from the capital cities located on the coast to the far-flung borderline settlements. The tasks the policing was required to execute included; preventing crime, detention of offenders and regular patrols of metropolitan areas and rural citizens. It was also required of police to carry out a wide range of administrative and local government functions.
Federal vs State Levels of Policing in Australia
At the end of the 19th century, the six federal states of Australia were formed and they came together to be the 'Commonwealth of Australia' other territories were also incorporated later. The Australian constitution could only enact laws that had direct support or incidental to an enumerated constitutional authoritative head (Brain, 2010). The effect of such a constitution was that the duty of criminal law and policing stayed on the State rather than the federal level. The newly established federal parliament put in place the Customs Act of 1901, which gave the legal authority for criminalizing a wide range of drugs (Brain, 2010). Commonwealth bureaus consist of the State police forces, Australian Crime Commission and Australian Federal Police work in unison to thwart crime. The states of Australia maintain firm resistance to uniformity through codification.
Conclusion
In sum, regardless of all the advantages that the French model of policing has over that of Australia, it would prove difficult for Australia to adopt it especially because Australia refuses to move away from its federal government. All the states of Australia still want autonomy even in the police force. The centralized form of policing in France would work well in Australia only if Australia would be willing to move the whole of its administration into centralization. With such factors as the political culture influencing policing in Australia the French model of policing cannot be implemented there.
References
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Emsley, C. (2017). Police Detectives in History, 1750–1950. Routledge.
Hufnagel, S. (2016). Policing cooperation across borders: comparative perspectives on law enforcement within the EU and Australia. Routledge.
Mazerolle, L., Marchetti, E., " Lindsay, A. (2003). Policing the plight of indigenous Australians: Past conflicts and present challenges. Police and Society, 7, 77-104.
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Rawlings, P. (2012). Policing: A short history. Routledge.
Ribaux, O., Crispino, F., " Roux, C. (2015). Forensic intelligence: deregulation or return to the roots of forensic science?. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 47(1), 61-71.
Wilcock, S. (2016). Policing Welfare: Risk, Gender, and Criminality. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 5(1), 113-130.
