Mick Keelty

Mick Keelty AO APM
Keelty in July 2014
Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police
In office 2 April 2001 – 2 September 2009
Preceded by	Mick Palmer
Succeeded by	Tony Negus
Personal details
Born	(1954-07-13) 13 July 1954 (age 62) Sydney, Australia
Profession	Police officer

Michael Joseph "Mick" Keelty AO APM (born 13 July 1954), Australian police officer, was the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police from 2001 to 2009. Keelty became the inaugural Chairperson of the Australian Crime Commission in 2003.

Keelty joined the Australian Capital Territory Police in 1974, which was subsequently merged with the Commonwealth Police in 1979, to create the Australian Federal Police (AFP). During his policing career, Keelty had experience across organised crime and corruption whilst seconded to the National Crime Authority, intelligence, community policing, and drug operations. He became an Assistant Commissioner of the AFP in 1995 and Deputy Commissioner in 1998. Keelty was appointed Commissioner of Police of the Australian Federal Police on 2 April 2001 for an initial term of five years. At the time, aged 46, he was the youngest Commissioner and the first Commissioner appointed from within the ranks of the AFP.

As Commissioner, Keelty oversaw the expansion of the AFP following the terrorist attacks in the United States of America later that year and the bombings in Bali, Indonesia in 2002. The organisation quadrupled in size and budget in the eight-and-a-half years he served as Commissioner taking on new roles such as the International Deployment Group – a body of some 1,200 officers serving in Afghanistan, Timor Leste, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea and expanding the AFP's budget from A$370 million in 2001 to A$1.3 billion in 2009.

Major controversies in the AFP on his watch included the investigation of Muhamed Haneef, an Indian born doctor, on suspicion of involvement in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack that saw a protracted investigation and release without charge, with later substantial compensation for loss of income, interruption of his professional work, and emotional distress largely based on the actions of the AFP. Mick Keelty also oversaw the AFP's involvement in the Bali Nine where 9 Australians were known to be carrying drugs to Indonesia, where they were arrested, jailed with two executed. The AFP never advised if they notified the Indonesians, however said they were unable to arrest the nine before departure from Australia. He is unrepentant about the AFP's role in the Bali Nine saga.