Managing New England (7th State)'s Assetts - Police Force

Last blog I wrote I left off at what people would have to say about the transfer of of assets from New South Wales (NSW) to New England (NE).

Then there's also those who say "Well what about other facilities, such as the Police College in Goulburn which has millions of dollars with of training facilities, we can't afford to rebuild that and everything else we need".

Jim Belshaw writes that the control of government owned services would be transferred from NSW to NE during a transitional period (1-3 years?). For more information on that, check out his blog.

The training/employment and structure of these organizations vary, so I am going to focus on one; the Police Force, as I know the procedure of becoming a police constable and how the university degree is structured.

The Associate Degree in Police Practice (ADPP) is structured into 5 sessions.

Session 1 is mostly theory andlaw studies. It can be completed by either studying four months full time on campus in Goulburn NSW, or eight months part time from home.

Session 2 must take place on campus in Goulburn full time (four months), and is mostly physical training, taking advantage of the multimillion dollar facilities on site.

After Session 2 is completed successfully, students become Probationary Constables and begin work on the beat and are assigned a Local Area Command (LAC) to work in. Sessions 3, 4 and 5 are completed from home as they complete their Probationary Constable period (one year).




If New England became a state, the police force in the New England area would be handed over to the newly formed government's control. Rather then spending money duplicating the type of facilities located in Goulburn, I suggest that the New England Police Force have a very similar recruitment process that the NSW Police Force currently has (Sessions 1 -5).

It would go something like this;

Session 1 would be studied within New England at a local campus, as it is mostly the study of the law (and overtime, NE will have different laws from NSW). Upon completing Session 1, students move onto Session 2, which would be at the Goulburn campus.



Goulburn Campus could be transformed into not just the NSW Police College, but a multi-state Police College. NE Students would be assimilated with the NSW Students beginning Session 2. The physical side of policing is the same in any jurisdiction (run, jump, shoot, drive etc). However, NE students may still have questions in regards as to what power the law permits police officers. To counter this, Year Advisers from the New England Police Force could be stationed at the Goulburn Campus to advise their students of any questions. If this isn't possible, students could contact dedicated teachers back in New England via email. (I completed a short course to gain entry into the police entirely through emails to a teacher I never met face to face or contacted by phone. It's plausible.)

Once graduated and fully fledged Probationary Constables, students return to New England to finish Sessions 3 - 5.

Above is an example of how the new state can have an operating police force that is able to recruit new officers without have to spend millions and millions of dollars on a new campus etc. All it would cost the state is the cost of conducting Session 1 in New England Universities (which comes out of student admission fees), and costs of running Session 3, 4 and 5 via correspondence (also paid from student fees).
The New England government would not owe the New South Wales government any money, as (yes again) the student admission fees would cover the cost of their own placement at the Goulburn campus. From memory the student fees (payable by HECS loan) is between $5000 - $10 000 . I don't know exactly as I never got that far.

I'm not sure how Fire Fighters, the Ambulance Services, and the Education department works, but I'm sure a similar procedure could be put in place.

Of course, overtime as New England grows and Goulburn reaches capacity, the time would eventually come for New England to construct its own Police College.