In the ACT, 731 police officers are tasked with serving more than 466,000 residents.
Annual police reports show the size of sworn members in 2023 was a slight increase from 708 officers in 2013 when Canberra had fewer people and suburbs.
Increased workloads are stretching an already "thin blue line" and the safety of Canberrans continues to come at great cost, president of the federal police union Alex Caruana said.
"Policing is a hard profession, and it takes its toll on members," he said.
He said many ACT patrol zones operated on minimum strength, increasing risk of injuries for officers who were already struggling to rest and be fit for duty.
Mr Caruana said 177 police officers had joined ACT Policing in 2022-2023 and 93 of them were new recruits.
"In the same period 180 police officers transfer out of ACT Policing to AFP national or careers outside the AFP," he told The Canberra Times.
While ACT police were doing "an excellent job" under pressure, Mr Caruana said the workforce was also "relatively junior" in level of experience.
"[Sergeants] have their hands full looking after their squads, trying to find members for overtime and carrying their own workloads and responsibilities, so it's often the leading senior constables and senior constables on the ground that mentor and help more junior members with day-to-day stuff," he said.
"It's important that ACT Policing retain these senior members as their skills and experience are invaluable to the organisation and ACT community."
Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) members are asking the government to employ 126 additional ACT Policing officers in the next three years, instead of five years as stated in last year's budget.
24-hour team mental health team needed
Boosting officer numbers, future-proofing "tired" police stations, and making the Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response team (which responds to people having mental health crises) a 24-hour service, are among six priorities the union is asking of the next elected government.
Existing PACER teams operate in two shifts from 8am to 12am, seven days a week.
"There is no roster or set time for a person to have a mental health crisis," Mr Caruana said.
He also said while police received basic mental health training, and know when someone is experiencing a crisis, they were not experts.
In union members' experience, a big percentage of those suffering a crisis did not commit a crime.
"The suffering person doesn't need to be placed in the back of the caged police vehicle and conveyed to hospital and potentially have their mental health crisis and trauma increased by this experience," Mr Caruana said.
He said police were needed when a person was violent, committing a crime or harming themselves.
Members said the best person to diagnose and initially treat a person in crisis was a mental health expert, supported by ACT Ambulance and ACT Policing personnel.
The union also wanted a study to examine if PACER could also respond to family violence and sexual assault incidents.
Members want 'modern' headquarters, police stations
The president said the union wanted a new ACT Policing Headquarters and a new City Police Station, with a watch house, by 2027.
"City Station is old and due to poor design and maintenance was forced to close for a period of time," Mr Caruana said.
"Gungahlin Station hasn't been a 'fit for purpose' police station for years and that was also recently closed due to contamination issues.
"The Winchester Police Centre is tired and isn't optimal for ACT Policing. The building has done well ... but it's time for a new, modern headquarters that can grow and meet the needs of [police and the community]."
He also said the Woden precinct had air-conditioning issues and safety and privacy risks because people in neighbouring high-rise apartments could see into the police station.
"All our election requests in our 2024 ACT Election manifesto are a priority for the AFPA," Mr Caruana said.
"There are some legislative priorities that we'll be discussing with the new government, especially around firearm prohibition orders, coercive control, presumption of bail, and penalties for assaulting a police officer."
Bail 'almost a guarantee' for alleged offenders
Additionally, AFPA wanted an independent review of ACT's bail and sentencing practices because ACT Policing members and the community had given feedback about "light and "soft" sentencing.
Mr Caruana said Operation TORIC was a perfect example showing bail, parole, good behaviour orders and intensive correction orders were not working well.
"In January 2024, TORIC arrested it's 400th person, and I believe that number is now over 500 peoples. Of those 400 people arrested, 57 were on good behavior orders, 164 were on bail, 24 were on parole and 60 were wanted on arrest warrants. These numbers alone should be enough for a review to occur," the union president said.
He said AFPA members wanted bail to be a privilege and unfortunately in the ACT "bail was almost a guarantee".
If a review was done and results indicated ACT's judiciary was sentencing and granting bail in alignment with other jurisdictions then AFPA members said they would accept those findings.
Members also raised concerns about recidivism in people released from prison or on bail or on other orders.
Incarceration rates would reduce only if the government offered more support programs, Mr Caruana said.
"If a person is placed into prison after breaking into houses and stealing property to support their drug addiction, then they need support and programs put in place to break the cycle, otherwise ... they'll just return to their old habits," he said.
"It's not fair on the person, nor is it fair on the community."
Metal wands to replace frisk searches
The union also sought a permanent Operation TORIC team and "Jack's Law" in NSW to be introduced in the ACT so police could search people for knives with metal detection wands rather than doing a frisk search.
"Our interest in the reform revolves around officer safety and better human rights compliance," Mr Caruana said.
AFPA believed wands would also reduce the risk of needle stick injuries or cross contamination between the person being searched and police.
