Criminology Research Council grant ; (10/94-5)
In the last two decades there have been major shifts in the firearms policies of Australia's eight police jurisdictions. This report endeavours to provide better and further particulars of Australian police firearm carriage policies. This report has surveyed all jurisdictions and provides a current, public, descriptive statement of all Australian policies on police firearm carriage for the first time since 1985. Moreover, it provides a commentary and analysis of the events in the past two years in Victoria including Project Beacon and the effect that it has had on at least two other jurisdictions. This report provides a brief history of police firearms carriage policies in each State and Territory, including the Australian Federal Police, with a more critical gaze being cast over the South Australian parliamentary experience. Finally, this report places the various police firearms policies in the context of the pertinent recommendations of the report of the Australian National Committee on Violence in 1990.