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Police force of the Australian state of South Australia

South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian state of South Australia. SAPOL is an independent statutory agency of the Government of South Australia directed by the Commissioner of Police, who reports to the Minister for Police. SAPOL provides general duties policing, highway patrol, criminal investigation and emergency coordination services throughout the state. SAPOL is also responsible for road safety advocacy and education, and maintains the South Australian Road Safety Centre. as of November 2023 the commissioner of police is Grant Stevens, who has been in the role since July 2015.

Formally established on 28 April 1838 under the command of Inspector Henry Inman, the force is the oldest in Australasia and is the third oldest organised police force in the world. The first force in the colony of South Australia consisted of 10 mounted constables and 10 foot constables. In 1840, Major Thomas Shouldham O'Halloran was appointed as the first official Commissioner of Police. At this time, SAPOL consisted of one Superintendent, two Inspectors, three Sergeants and 47 Constables divided into foot and mounted sections. Cocks retired in 1935, and was the officer in charge of the largest female detachment of all Australian state police departments of 14, which was double the size of the next nearest of New South Wales. In 1929, officer Daisy Curtis studied on a scholarship abroad to examine the 'methods of protecting women and children'. This included travels to the jurisdictions of Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and New Zealand. (New Zealand did not get its first female officer until 1941.) In 1999, SAPOL was the first Australian policing jurisdiction to appoint a female police officer, Senior Constable Jane Kluzek, to a tactical group.

The commissioner of police, in addition to leading SAPOL, also serves as the State Emergency Coordinator and is responsible for major emergency response and command and control of major disasters, including bushfires, floods, and earthquakes. Under an emergency declaration, the commissioner has extraordinary authority to create rules and regulations that may be enforced by police, for a limited time. Due to these laws, Commissioner Grant Stevens became a central figure in South Australia's response to the COVID 19 pandemic. The powers of South Australia Police are defined in the Police Act 1998.

as of November 2023 Stevens is still in the position.

SAPOL's structure consists of various units. Through the chain of command, all units are accountable to the Commissioner. Services are the largest units, and are headed by a sworn assistant commissioner, or for areas which are not policing specific, such as information technology, a civilian Director. Services are directly accountable to either the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner. Services within metropolitan Adelaide are based on four different districts: North, East West and South. Each district has its own localised branch that provides specialised services or assistance, such as Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), family violence, and intelligence sections. There are seven local service areas (LSAs) for remote and country areas within the remainder of the state.

Districts and LSAs are the main organisational unit to provide policing services to the public. A district and local service area contains a number of police stations, as well as specialist services to support frontline police such as detectives, crime scene investigators and traffic police. Each LSA has a designated office known as a 'Complex' where majority of operations in the area start. The LSA then have smaller community police stations for quick policing access. Metropolitan districts and LSAs are divided into the Metropolitan Operations Service and the State Operations Service, which each have their own coordination branch and some other additional functions.

SAPOL issues uniforms to sworn police officers. Police officers working in non specialised areas generally wear a standard uniform, which consists of a navy blue collared shirt with attached police badges and navy blue slacks. Short and long sleeve shirts are worn as preferred. Police officers can choose between either a dark blue peaked hat or an Akubra wide brimmed hat and are not required to wear a tie. Baseball caps are worn in specialist areas, including STAR Group, Crime Scene, State Traffic Enforcement Section, and by Operational Safety Trainers. Officers in northern country areas wear khaki uniforms instead of blue. PSOs (Police Security Officers) wear slightly different shirts. The shirts and slacks are also navy blue, but they have golden markings and PSO markings. In the past, the shirt was white. This was changed at the end of 2019. In 2010 SAPOL started consultations on a new darker uniform reminiscent of those worn by officers of the NYPD and LAPD. In 2012 SAPOL announced the new uniform would be introduced in mid October 2012 and would be rolled out over 18 months. The only visible change from the consultation period was to the peaked cap. The white peak was changed to the same dark blue as the shirt and pants, which is called ink blue. SAPOL has implemented the use of stab resistant vests for all patrol officers, PSOs and Police dogs.

SAPOL utilise specialised Vehicles which are used in a wide variety of ways, for example, as a mobile police station/unit at a large public function, or as forward command posts at search and rescues, or other incidents such as siege or hostage situations. STAR Group also possess a Lenco BearCat armoured vehicle available for use in a siege or terrorist situations.

The SAPOL Water Operations Unit uses a number of watercraft including boats and Jet Skis to police coastal and inland waterways.

For ceremonial activities, crowd control and patrol duties, the SAPOL Mounted Operations Unit use grey horses. They are bred and trained at the Thebarton Police Barracks, in Park 27 of the Adelaide Park Lands, just northeast of the Adelaide city centre. These "police greys", as they are known, are ideal for police work as the light grey tones make the horse highly visible at night. They are also highly recognisable in the community and are often involved in community events such as leading the annual Credit Union Christmas Pageant and ANZAC Day parade. The Thebarton Police Barracks will be under the South Australian Governments plan to replace the current Women's and Children's Hospital and replaced with a new facility.

Members of STAR Group and Transit Services Branch act as crew members on a modified Bell 412 Helicopter (callsign PolAir 53) which features an array of thermal and imaging sensors and is marked in a SAPOL livery. SAPOL also use a Pilatus PC 12 aircraft which is used to convey Police and prisoners across the state.

Recruit training is conducted at the SAPOL Police Academy located adjacent to the old barracks adjacent to Fort Largs in the north western Adelaide suburb of Taperoo. Cadets undergo a 52 week course, called the "Constable Development Program" (CDP). The CDP is broken down into five phases, which includes training at the Police Academy and field experience at metropolitan LSAs. Police cadets learn law, about investigations and police procedures. During recruit training, non officers (police staff and volunteers) assist with various duties, such as cadet assessment, role playing and general administration. Cadets also undertake operational safety training, including self defence and the use of firearms. Practical role playing and assessments are part of the course. Training with police dogs and police horses is offered at the Thebarton Police Barracks. Earlier, training was being held at the older Academy located next to the present one.

Cadets graduate with the rank of probationary constable and are subject to a 15 month period of on the job training. Probationary Constables are required to work with a Field Tutor for the first 6 months of the probationary period whilst they complete a Personal Learning Portfolio. Probationary Constables also undertake a range of duties to enhance their learning, including traffic, prisoner management, and general duties. For the following 6 months, probationary constables continue to collect evidence of their workplace competency before attending the Probationary Constable Assessment Workshop to determine whether they are suitable to progress to the rank of constable. Upon completion of the probationary period, officers receive a Diploma of Public Safety (Policing) and are appointed to the rank of Constable. Training is ongoing and further courses are available for officers to attend, should they wish to progress their policing career further. SAPOL Protective Security Officers also undergo training at this location. The duration of this training course is only 12 weeks.

SAPOL refers to the communications operation as "VKA". At 0400 hours (4am) on Tuesday 10 December 2002, SAPOL officially switched from standard 64 UHF channels to the SA Government Radio Network (SAGRN). This utilised digital encrypted radio transmissions, meaning that scanners could not listen to police communications. While at first there seemed to be technical issues with the new system, they were quickly resolved and the department now has full trust in the system. SAPOL still have UHF licences and it is plausible they are available as back up communication channels. SAPOL uses three primary devices for voice communication over the network. They are Spectra W7 mobile, XTS 5000 portable and Spectra W3 mobile. These can be controlled via the RCH3000 desktop controller, used in fixed locations generally by trained operators. These devices have a number of features that are regularly used in patrols. These features include private call, page alert and telephone interconnect. Private call allows units to directly talk to another unit without dispatch, or other users in the talkgroup, hearing. However, this comes with the inability for dispatch to contact either unit. Page function alerts another radio that someone else is attempting to contact them. Telephone interconnect enables units to make and answer calls through the system. However, only supervisors have the ability to make and answer to any number, general patrols are restricted to only a list of certified SAPOL numbers. Each LSA has two assigned 'talkgroups'. COMCEN (Communications) have assigned talkgroup IDs, allowing them to pair an LSA's primary and secondary talkgroups together allowing control to manage two channels at once. The Secondary channel is often used for local/chat, dispatch lowers the volume of the secondary channel, which enables them to monitor the channels and talk to all units on duty in the LSA.

In 1988, Detective Chief Inspector Barry Moyse formerly in charge of the drug squad was himself convicted of trafficking heroin and other drugs that he had seized from dealers, and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment, of which he served ten years before being paroled. He died in 2010 at the age of 65. In 1994, a bombing at the National Crime Authority Adelaide offices killed Western Australian Police Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and severely injured others. The bomb was concealed in a parcel that was addressed to Bowen. Domenic Perre, who had been identified as a person of interest shortly after the bombing and a known crime figure was convicted of the bombing in 2022. During the 2016 South Australian blackout, SAPOL Commissioner Grant Stevens declared a major incident under the Emergency Management Act 2004. During the incident, police officers who were not responding to distress calls were ordered to undertake traffic control duties in the stormy conditions due to all traffic lights around the state becoming inoperable. On 16 November 2023, Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig was shot and killed and another officer wounded on a rural property north of Bordertown, after responding with two other officers to a report of someone shooting a dog. Police returned fire, resulting in the perpetrator, a 26 year old male, receiving life threatening gunshot wounds. The death of Jason took the number of SA officers killed in the line of duty to 62. Less than two months later, a female police officer died on duty at the Port Adelaide police station.