An Exercise in Police Co-operation? The Origins of the Conference of Australian Police Commissioners

Abstract

Research on police co-operation has focused on international co-operation and the challenges encountered on the path to a common Europe. Much less attention has been paid to historical challenges of police co-operation within the boundaries of nation-states with multiple police agencies. In this article we examine the origins of an institutional approach to the problems of policing within a federation. In Australia police commissioners of the various jurisdictions have been convening in a national forum for more than a century. This practice has its origins in late-nineteenth century developments in criminal identification technologies such as Bertillonage and fingerprinting. The inaugural meeting of state police commissioners occurred in 1903 and after 1921 it became an annual event. In sum, we argue that the historical evidence from Australia suggests that the emergence of police co-operation within national boundaries is likely to replicate the patterns observed in the development of international police co-operation across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.