In 2013 the Australian Crime Commission commemorates its 10 year anniversary.
In 2003, the Commonwealth and states decided that Australia required a national agency that could focus solely on issues of serious and organised crime. This brought three separate agencies together to combine national intelligence and special investigatory capabilities.
The ACC was accordingly empowered to conduct special investigations and special operations where conventional law enforcement methods are unable or unlikely to be effective. This included the use of Royal Commission style coercive powers.
Over the past ten years, the ACC has led the national response to serious and organised crime. A key hallmark of the ACC is that it works in partnership with the 15 member ACC Board agencies, which include police forces around Australia to break the business of serious and organised crime.
Today, the ACC is Australia’s national criminal intelligence agency with unique investigative capabilities. It is a niche, complementary agency delivering specialist law enforcement capabilities to other agencies in the law enforcement community and broader government. Parliament has also recently passed legislation that allows the ACC to share information to industry. This is an exciting and important milestone in the fight against organised crime.
Looking forward, the ACC will work to further cement these relationships and work collaboratively to target Australia’s highest threat organised crime groups, using both traditional and non-traditional law enforcement methods.
