Policing Australia: The Official Podcast of the Australian Police Journal

International partnerships are critical for improving the effectiveness of policing and law enforcement, especially in the Pacific. More effective policing across the region leads to safer communities and an increased potential ability to combat transnational and serious organised crimes such fraud, environmental crime and the smuggling of illicit drugs and people. For decades, Australia and New Zealand have played an important role in assisting and working alongside Pacific islands police, w...

This episode is about how the actions of Australian police can have a diplomatic effect, when police personnel are deployed overseas. The deployment of police to another country is as much a statement about the sending nation’s intent and values, as it is about the police duties being performed. Dr Martin Hess is a retired police officer who has just published a book titled ‘The Politics of Police Diplomacy – the Australian Experience’. It’s an analysis of six decades of Australian police act...

Search & Rescue coordination expert and retired policeman, Dr Jim Whitehead APM, discusses two cases where police were called to search for men who went missing in remote bushland. Jim’s article about the first case – titled ‘The Perfect Storm’ – was printed in the September 2023 edition of the APJ. In that case Mr Don Marchant went missing in rugged jungle-like bushland in southern Queensland, a day before the region was struck by Tropical Cyclone Debbie. The second case involved a hermi...

Noted UK criminologist and author Christopher Berry-Dee talks to Jason Byrnes about his lengthy career in dealing with serial killers, psychopaths and savages. He talks about some of the more memorable people and cases he has dealt with. Chris’ books can be purchased through major bookshops and internet sites. To subscribe to the APJ, go to www.apjl.com.au and click the subscribe button. In the interview Chris mentions serial killer Colonel Russell Williams. The police interview of Williams –...

Imagine having to police a war-torn nation with no laws, limited or damaged infrastructure and a deeply traumatised community. That’s what Australian police were faced with in late 1999 when they deployed to East Timor as part of a massive United Nations peacekeeping operation. Michael Ward was one of hundreds of police who volunteered to help the people of East Timor after they had voted for independence from Indonesia, and after the new nation was almost destroyed by pro-Indonesian mi...

A horrid rape and robbery in December 2006 brought Ipswich detectives into contact with a man who had previously been convicted of multiple rapes and sexual assaults in Queensland and New South Wales. On this occasion however, police were initially unable to find direct evidence of the man's guilt. Over time, detectives were able to build a brief of evidence based on the principles of propensity evidence. Former Detective Sergeant Darren Prickett led the investigation and joins host Jason By...

Former policeman Ronald Cornish talks about his time as a police peacekeeper with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Sixty years ago, Australia sent its first contingent of police to UNFICYP, to undertake monitoring duties of Greek Cypriot police. Australia’s contribution to UNFICYP eventually lasted 53 years, with the final contingent leaving in 2017. In 1965 Constable Ron Cornish of the Tasmania Police was selected to be a member of the second contingent (at the time...