QUT Centre for Justice member, Associate Professor Danielle Watson has written for The Interpreter in discussing the establishment of an Australian training center for Pacific Police., with an estimated budget of more than $400 million.
“The new plan also comes at a time when police organisations across the region are buckling under the pressures of strained resourcing for police workstations beyond major cities, inadequate numbers of officers and emerging crime and security threats. Recruitment, training and retention continues to be a major issue, compounded by the high turnover of trained senior officers. Across the region, there is strong demand to upgrade, expand and in some cases establish local training academies, rather than send scarce officers offshore.”
“An investment with specialised training units embedded in national police academies across the region would likely be a more sustainable option.”
“Gaps in policing need local commitment and partners in support, not external band aids.”
Read the full article here.
Danielle Watson is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow in the School of Justice. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the South Pacific and an Affiliate of the Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative (RESI). Her research focuses on Pacific regional security, border security, policing, police/community relations, policing culturally and linguistically diverse communities and plural regulatory systems in the Caribbean and Pacific. She conducts research on (in)security in Pacific Island countries, capacity building for security service providers, recruitment and training as well as many other areas specific to improving security governance in developing country contexts. Her research interests are multidisciplinary in scope as she also conducts research geared towards the advancement of tertiary teaching and learning.
Read more about Danielle here.
Danielle also co-leads the QUT Centre for Justice Small Islands Security Governance Research Group.
Comments are closed.