Policing in Remote Australia: Is it Possible to Ignore Colonial Borderlines?

Abstract

In 2009 a new criminal justice initiative was introduced to the central Australian desert region. It has become known as the Cross-border Justice Scheme. In short, the Scheme endeavours to police the region without paying heed to the colonial boundaries that separate the various state jurisdictions. The Scheme was designed to promote high quality trans-jurisdictional practice by all key criminal justice institutions, namely police, prosecutions, courts and corrections, but especially police. This chapter looks at the impetus of the Scheme from its political roots, the implementation of the Scheme, and the pivotal role played by police services, both in changing the environment in which the Scheme now operates and in contributing to some positive but limited changes in cross-jurisdictional policing cooperation.