Report on Government Services 2025

Police services are the principal means through which state and territory governments pursue the achievement of a safe and secure environment for the community. Across jurisdictions, police activity can be grouped into four broad activity areas:

• Community safety – preserving public order and promoting a safer community
• Crime – investigating crime and identifying and apprehending offenders
• Road safety – targeted operations to reduce the incidence of traffic offences and through attendance at, and investigation of, road traffic collisions and incidents

• Judicial services – support to the judicial process including the provision of safe custody for alleged offenders.

Police services also respond to more general needs in the community – for example, working with emergency management organisations and a wide range of government services and community groups, and advising on general policing issues.

Police services are predominantly the responsibility of state and territory government agencies. They include the Australian Capital Territory community policing function performed by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) under an arrangement between the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth Minister for Justice.

The Australian Government is responsible for the AFP. Data for the national policing function of the AFP and other national non-police law enforcement bodies (such as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) is not included in this report.

Funding for police services comes almost exclusively from state and territory governments, with some limited specific purpose Australian Government grants. Nationally in 2023-24, total real recurrent expenditure (including user cost of capital, less revenue from own sources and payroll tax) was $17.0 billion with an average annual growth rate of 3.0% for the five years to 2023-24 (table 6A.1).

Client groups

All community members are recipients of policing services. Some members of the community have direct dealings with the police and can be considered specific client groups, for example:

• victims of crime
• people suspected of, or charged with, committing offences
• people reporting criminal incidents
• people involved in traffic-related incidents
• third parties (such as witnesses to crime and people reporting traffic-related incidents)
• people requiring police services for non-crime-related matters.

Staffing

Police staff comprise operational and non-operational staff.

An operational police staff member is any member whose primary duty is the delivery of police or police-related services.

Police staff are also categorised according to ‘sworn’ status. Sworn police officers exercise police powers, including the power to arrest, summons, caution, detain, fingerprint and search. Specialised activities may be outsourced or undertaken by administrative (unsworn) staff.

Operational police staff is considered the primary estimate of the number of police staff actively engaged in the delivery of police-related services. Nationally in 2023-24, 87.9% of the total 81,848 police staff were operational. This proportion has decreased every year since 2017-18 (92.2%). There were 267 operational police per 100,000 people nationally in 2023-24. Rates varied across jurisdictions from 213 to 298, except the Northern Territory with a rate of 757 (figure 6.1 and table 6A.2).

The rate of operational sworn police staff is also reported to give greater context to police service provision across Australia. Nationally in 2023-24, 70.3% of the total 81,848 staff were operational sworn police. This proportion has decreased every year since 2019-20 (74.7%). There were 213 operational sworn police per 100,000 people nationally in 2023-24. Rates varied across jurisdictions from 168 to 235, except the Northern Territory with a rate of 513 (figure 6.1 and table 6A.2).