The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. The AFP is an independent agency of the Attorney-General's Department and is responsible to the Attorney-General and accountable to the Parliament of Australia. As of October 2019 the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police is Reece Kershaw, formerly the Northern Territory Police Commissioner.
The Melbourne gangland killings were the murders of 36 underworld figures in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, between January 1998 and August 2010. The murders were retributive killings involving underworld groups. The deaths caused a power vacuum within Melbourne's criminal community, and rival factions fought for control and influence. Many of the murders remain unsolved, although detectives from the Purana Taskforce believe that Carl Williams was responsible for at least ten of them. The period culminated in the arrest of Williams, who pleaded guilty on 28 February 2007 to three of the murders.
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the Victoria Police Act 2013.
John Mansfield Brumby is the current Chancellor of La Trobe University and former Victorian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became leader of the Victorian Labor Party and premier after the resignation of Steve Bracks. He also served as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. He contested his first election as premier at the November 2010 Victorian state election. His government was defeated by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Ted Baillieu. Brumby resigned as Labor leader after the election, on 30 November, to be replaced by Daniel Andrews. Within weeks of this leadership change, Brumby left parliament, with a Broadmeadows by-election taking place on 19 February 2011.
Carl Anthony Williams was an Australian convicted murderer and drug trafficker from Melbourne, Victoria. He was a central figure in the Melbourne gangland killings as well as their final victim.
Antonios Sajih Mokbel is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of a number of offences, most prominently commercial drug trafficking. He has spent most of his life in Melbourne, Australia. Operation Purana alleged that he is the mastermind behind the Melbourne amphetamine trade. He has been linked to Carl Williams, and charged but not convicted of two murders in the Melbourne gangland war. He disappeared from Melbourne while on trial in March 2006, and was arrested by Greek police in Athens on 5 June 2007. Since being brought back to Australia he has remained incarcerated.
Murray Neil Comrie AO, APM, known as Neil Comrie, is a former Australian police officer. He was Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police from 1993 to 2001.
The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) was the Australian state of Victoria independent police oversight and anti-corruption agency established by the Victorian Government in November 2004. OPI ceased operation on 9 February 2013 and was replaced by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC). OPI's official role was to detect, investigate and prevent police corruption and serious misconduct and to ensure that police members had regard to the human rights set out in the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.
Zarah Garde-Wilson is an Australian solicitor in Victoria who rose to prominence after she acted for many persons under investigation by Victoria Police in relation to the Melbourne gangland killings of 1998–2006.
Audrey Ann Fagan was an Australian police officer, who, between 2005 and 2007, held the rank of Assistant Commissioner and served as the Chief Police Officer of Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing, which includes community policing responsibilities for Canberra and other parts of the ACT. Fagan was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 2004 and died in office, having committed suicide by hanging while on vacation.
The Honoured Society is a Calabrian 'Ndrangheta criminal confederation, started in Melbourne and currently active in all of Australia. In 1963, it was reportedly involved in the Victoria Market Murders. It was led by gangster Frank Benvenuto until his slaying in 2000. Tony Romeo, another high-ranking member, was shot in 2002.
Sir Kenneth Lloyd Jones is a British former police officer. He was a Deputy Commissioner of Victoria Police in Australia, former President of Association of Chief Police Officers for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom and Senior Investigator of Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong. Sir Ken Jones is a former President of Association of Chief Police Officers and presently defence & security advisor at the British Embassy in Washington DC. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 2000 and was knighted for services to policing in 2009.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the media of Australia, mostly in Melbourne, Sydney, and India publicised reports of crimes and robberies against Indians in Australia that were described as racially motivated.
Kenneth Douglas Lay, is a former Australian police officer and Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police from 2011 to 2015. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria from November 2017 to November 2021.
Nicola Maree Gobbo, sometimes known as Nikki Gobbo, is an Australian former criminal defence barrister and police informant.
In 2004 the murders of Terence and Christine Hodson caused the Victorian government to establish the Office of Police Integrity to investigate probable Victoria Police involvement in the murders and to investigate the leaking of sensitive police information to the Melbourne underworld.
Graham Leonard Ashton is an Australian police officer who was the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police from 2015 to 2020. He also served in the Australian Federal Police for a long period.
Criminal activity in New South Wales, Australia is combated by the New South Wales Police Force and the New South Wales court system, while statistics about crime are managed by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Modern Australian states and cities, including New South Wales, have some of the lowest crime rates recorded globally with Australia ranked the 13th safest nation and Sydney ranked the 5th safest city globally. As of September 2018 the City of Penrith (475.7) and City of Blacktown (495.1). Rural areas have comparatively high crime rates per 100,000 with rural shires such as Walgett Shire (1350.3) and Moree Plains Shire (1236.2) having some of the highest violent crime rates in the state. The overall NSW crime rate has been in steady decline for many years.
Informer 3838 is an Australian television series focusing on criminal barrister-turned police informer Nicola Gobbo and her involvement in the Melbourne gangland killings. It is a spin-off of the Underbelly franchise, with various actors reprising their role from previous series. Commissioned by the Nine Network and produced by Screentime, it was broadcast between 20 and 27 April 2020.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants - An inquiry into Victoria Police’s use of Nicola Gobbo as a human source, referred to in the press as Lawyer X Royal Commission, was a royal commission in Victoria, Australia set up to examine the actions of Nicola Gobbo and Victoria Police whilst Gobbo, also referred to as Informer 3838, Lawyer X (media), and EF (litigation), was working as a lawyer and acting as a registered informer. It was announced on 3 December 2018, in response to the High Court AB v CD; EF v CD judgement, and was established on 13 December 2018 under Hon Margaret McMurdo to examine the adequacy and effectiveness of the processes of Victoria Police for the recruitment, handling and management of human sources who are subject to legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege and the effect of using such sources on past cases.
