The first police graduation ceremony to be held at Government House has sworn in 25 new probationary constables to be deployed across Canberra in the weeks ahead.
And yet their arrival will do little to quell the continuing debate around insufficient policing resources in the territory.
As the Governor-General and the NSW Mounted Police added ceremonial propriety to the special occasion, the new recruits were sworn in and received their badges on the lush Yarralumla lawns.
All but one of the 26 new probationary constables will be deployed into the ACT. One constable will be deployed to the AFP's Southern Command.
The addition of the new officers to local police ranks can't come soon enough for ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan and the Australian Federal Police Association, who have been lobbying vigorously for a significant lift in numbers so as to close the gap to the national average across all police services nationally.
The most recent January 2022 Report on Government Services (RoGS) revealed the ACT has the lowest operational police-to-population ratio than anywhere else in the country, with 219 police per 100,000 people, compared with the national average of 284.
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan has been forthright on the issue, declaring demand for police services in the ACT has far exceeded supply and needs to match the rapid growth in the territory's population.
He said that the ACT's population had risen 19 per cent in the past decade while local police numbers had fallen by 0.7 per cent "in raw terms".
However, his requests so far have fallen on deaf ears with Police Minister Mick Gentleman as recently as last week in the ACT Assembly declaring the government had "injected record funding" into police services in the past four years and that ACT police numbers "cannot be readily compared with other jurisdictions".
He indicated that police have the autonomy to deploy their resources "as they see fit".
ACT Policing is the only contracted community police service in Australia, its cohort drawn from the ranks of the much larger Australian Federal Police. The AFP is paid $200 million a year to police the ACT.
The 13 men and 13 women - aged between 20 and 36 - were in the first recruit course to graduate from the AFP College this year.
The probationary constables will be deployed to stations across the ACT in general duties roles, learnin g locakl policies and procedures in the next few weeks and then traditionally are sent out with the Road Policing team, where they familiarise themselves with radar, and roadside breath-testing.
The Governor General is always invited to police recruit graduation but is rarely able to attend due to other pressing engagements. However, on this occasion, he opened an invitation to the Australian Federal Police to hold the ceremony at Yarralumla and Commissioner Reece Kershaw was reportedly delighted to accept the offer.
Among the group of new graduates are former soldiers, investigators from the Australian Border Force, police officers from New South Wales and Victoria, and former prison officers.
New constable Emma Waye said she was excited to join the force and honour a family legacy of serving the Australian community.
"My parents and Poppa were police officers in South Australia, so I've grown up with policing stories, and it's made me really excited to get out there and give back to the community," she said.
Constable Jaxon Tennent worked as a lifeguard before applying to join the AFP.
"I always knew I wanted to work in the emergency services, but I wasn't sure of the exact path until a few years ago. I'm looking forward to hitting the streets," he said.
