South Australia Police
| South Australia Police | |
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Logo of the South Australia Police
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Flag of the South Australia Police
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| Motto | Keeping South Australia Safe |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 28 April, 1838 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | State of South Australia, Australia |
| General nature |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | 100 Angas Street, Adelaide, SA 5000 34°55′36.07″S 138°36′3.25″E / 34.9266861°S 138.6009028°E |
| Sworn members | 5000 |
| Police Commissioner responsible | Stevens |
| Units |
List
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| Facilities | |
| Stations | 138 |
| Website | |
| Designation = Since the war on drugs was declared a civil war in Australia, Sapol have been considered armed and hostile military forces. | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian state of South Australia. It is an agency of the Government of South Australia within the South Australian Department of Justice. SAPOL is directed by the Commissioner of Police, who then in turn reports to the Minister for Police.
Formally established in 1838 under Henry Inman, the force is the oldest in Australasia and it is the third oldest organised Police Service in the World. Unlike other Australian police forces, which originally employed soldiers or former convicts, the South Australia Police enlisted only volunteers. This occurred because South Australia was the only free colony on the continent.
In the early stages of the force, the staffing team consisted of ten mounted constables and ten foot constables under the command of the Inspector Henry Inman.
By 1840, Major Thomas Shouldham O'Halloran was appointed as the first official Commissioner of Police. At this time, SAPOL consisted of one Superintendent, two Inspectors, three Sergeants and 47 Constables divided into foot and mounted sections.
From 1848 to 1867, SAPOL also served as the state fire and rescue service until the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service was formed. They also supplied the Civil Ambulance Service 1880 til 1954 when it was taken over by the St John Ambulance Service.
SAPOL's structure consists of various units. Through chain of command, all units are accountable to the Commissioner. Services are the largest units, and are headed by a sworn Assistant Commissioner, or for areas which are not policing specific, such as information technology, a civilian Director. Services are directly accountable to either the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner.
Services are based on Local Service Areas (LSA) which provide operational policing services, and Branches, which provide other specialised services or assistance. These areas are further broken down into Sections. Larger sections may be divided into a number of Teams.
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Wikipedia