One-on-one with the Police Commissioner

Sitting down with NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, one thing comes through clearly: he wants the Jewish community not just to be safe, but to feel it.

In a one-on-one sit down interview with The AJN last month, Lanyon spoke at length about how policing in Sydney has changed since the Bondi Beach terror attack, the three pillars of Operation Shelter, the rollout of a new round-the-clock armed response team, the importance of community engagement and the Royal Commission.

Operation Shelter, established after October 7, 2023, and dramatically ramped up after December 14, is now in its second phase. Between December 15 and March 7, Lanyon said, it averaged 1100 taskings a week, around 6000 a month. That weekly figure has now jumped to 4060, or roughly 18,000 a month. “What has changed is the deployment model,” he said.

In the fortnight after the attack, Shelter mostly involved static patrols parked outside synagogues, schools and other locations. Now it runs on three gears: number plate recognition on Highway Patrol cars, units roaming the area to rapidly respond, and intelligence-led high-visibility policing.

“It has morphed. It certainly evolved from where it was in phase one,” Lanyon said.