ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan has expressed alarm at the severe constraints on front-line policing in Canberra while showing great sympathy for principles of drug decriminalisation and raising the age of criminal responsibility.

In a blistering final formal address as CPO, delivered to the ACT Chapter of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences, the 40-year veteran of the ACT force detailed his fears at the low level of general-duties patrols, now run by “the most inexperienced [officers] in the country”, with 40 per cent of his stations “not fully functioning” in a fight against an explosion of family-violence and mental-health callouts.

Add to this the winding up of one organised-crime squad and the fraud squad while having to play “whack-a-mole” with the Covid-19 protesters, aided by federal parliamentarians happy to promulgate “fake news”.

This senior Australian Federal Policeman’s lot is not a happy one, you might think, but Gaughan also spoke at length in terms unlike many other state and territory commissioners of my experience. He showed a great compassion for the misguided covid protesters, told how he was swayed by victim’s families to support “the principles associated with” the ACT Government’s drug decriminalisation moves and gave his support also to the “considerable merit” of raising the age of criminal responsibility.

Problems on the front line

Gaughan was blunt about the team at his........

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