Police in the ACT have recorded the lowest rate of public satisfaction across the country over the past 12 months.
The surprise result came in the latest 2020-21 Report on Government Services survey, which revealed that while general public satisfaction with ACT police was at 80.8 per cent - a fraction above the national average - those people who had contact with police in the latest 12-month reporting period rated their satisfaction with the interaction at 77.6 per cent.
This is well below the national average of 81.9 per cent, and the worst of all the police jurisdictions.
It was exactly the same public response rating as in the previous 12-month reporting period when ACT was the second-worst in satisfaction ratings in the country behind NSW. Every other state and territory was above the national average.
ACT police reported only the higher rating in its latest annual report as part of the performance measures it aims for under its $180 million annual contract with the ACT government.
The latest rating is a far cry from the local police's strongest performance, when it led the country with 90.8 per cent public satisfaction level back in 2014-15.
In the public assessment of its response to emergencies and disasters, ACT police improved from a 81.7 per cent total public satisfaction rating in 2019-20 to 82.2 per cent in the latest reporting period, coming after a dramatic period which encompassed the Black Summer bushfires.
Perceptions of public safety for the ACT while at home at night, walking alone in the neighbourhood and when riding public transport are consistently among the best in the country.
But the Canberra public are the most vocal in the nation about the problem of speeding cars, dangerous or noisy driving, with 70.3 per cent of survey respondents regarding it as a problem, well above the national average.
ACT respondents viewed illicit drugs in their local neighbourhoods as much less of a problem than in any other state or territory surveyed. Just 36.7 per cent of people regarded it as an issue, when wastewater analysis data has revealed that per head of population, Canberra is one of the biggest markets for cocaine and methamphetamine in the country.
The consistent issue of policing numbers in the territory was again highlighted by the report, which revealed that the ACT has the lowest number of operational staff per 100,000 people at 219. NSW, by comparison, has 244 operational officers per 100,000 population.
The ACT's recurrent expenditure was also the lowest of any police service around Australia.
The Australian Federal Police Association has consistently raised the issue of inadequate policing numbers as an issue, pointing to how this places undue stress and demands on frontline officers, and numbers have been stretched even thinner during the pandemic. The problem has been exacerbated lately as more staff have had to be stood down and quarantined due to a COVID Omicron exposure or close contact.
The federal arm of the police has acknowledged COVID-induced stand-downs as an issue affecting some of its capabilities but not so the local policing service, which claims it has enough officers fit and well during the pandemic to deal effectively with crime in the national capital.
