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.

“I think the community, immediately after the atrocity on the 14th [of December] really needed support and needed to see vehicles stopped directly at the front of premises. We are still doing that, but I think that roving presence, so that more members of the community see police vehicles, see police walking around on the beat, is there to reassure the community.

“I want the community to be safe, but also to feel safe, and that’s why Shelter has been an evolving program.”

Operation Shelter will eventually transition into the Armed Response Command (ARC) – a high-visibility, intelligence-led policing unit that can quickly respond to threats, patrol high-risk areas, protect places of worship and major events, and provide a visible presence.

It will have approximately 250 officers, with longarm capability (rifles) and a fleet of rapid-response vehicles. A 24/7 specialised Police Operations Centre (POC) will support the unit.

Lanyon said it is “a different form of engagement for the NSW Police Force”.

“We have recruited the senior leadership for it so that they can go through the planning, all of the logistics, securing procurement for firearms, vehicles, location,” he said.

“I expect that we will have a significant presence by ARC by the time we get to the anniversary this year, which I think, certainly for the community, the sooner, the better.”

Once established, its armed response capability will be able to be deployed across the Sydney metropolitan area.

“We can’t be everywhere, but we can be anywhere,” Lanyon said, explaining that while general duties cars can get tied up on an urgent domestic or a break-and-enter, ARC units will be dedicated to one thing: being present and ready to respond.

A car moving around an area, he added, is more of a deterrent than one parked in a known spot.

An intelligence-driven approach also means that any information coming from a member of the community or the CSG will be taken into account in how ARC units are deployed.

“We won’t be telling people where those units will be. In fact, I’ll expect that no one knows exactly where they are, because I want them to be present. I want them to have the ability to respond quickly,” he said.

Police with longarms is not something the public are used to seeing on Sydney’s streets, but Lanyon said that following December 14, “The environment has changed.

“What they expect to see from a police force has changed,” he said. “I have authorised the deployment of longarms at a range of events and a range of locations since December 14 … the feedback that has come back to our officers, and certainly to me, has been overwhelming in terms of the comfort that it provides.

“So what the community has been seeing where we’ve had our Public Order and Riot Squad deploying with longarms visible, that’s what the Armed Response Command will be.”

Lanyon said NSW Police has spoken to Jewish leaders about what is planned for ARC. Town halls are also planned “to talk about what ARC is, what it’s not, how it provides reassurance, and how it fits into the rest of the NSW Police Force”.

He said the partnerships with the community are important.

“We do have an excellent relationship with the CSG, and I think that’s really important for the community. We work with the CSG daily,” Lanyon said.

“But it is a partnership. Community organisers have a responsibility, obviously, to provide security for events. Police are certainly a part of that, and I really want organisers, CSG and the police to work closely together.”

Increased government funding will also allow NSW Police to double its number of multicultural community liaison officers from 30 to 60.

“The reason that announcement is important is because the more information we get back, the more we can reach into areas where there can be some dislocation of harmony, or perhaps some views being espoused that don’t fit in with community cohesion,” Lanyon said.

“We will absolutely be expanding the program out to cover the Jewish community as well. It already does, but we will be focusing on making sure we have a greater input into the community.”

He was direct about wanting people to come forward. “What’s important about policing is information intelligence,” he said.

“I encourage anyone who has some information, sees something that they don’t like or it just doesn’t sit well with them, is fearful of something, to report it to the police, because once we know about it, it may well go together with some other information that we have.

“Contact the police, provide information. Call Crime Stoppers. It will all get back to where it needs to be.”

Lanyon did not downplay what the run of weekly anti-Israel protests cost the force, with officers regularly called in on cancelled rest days. He defended the right to protest, but said a heavy police presence is sometimes simply about keeping everyone safe. On why protesters with banned flags or hateful chants are not always arrested, he said the law is often messier than it looks. A swastika altered in some way may not technically meet the legal definition of a Nazi symbol; or a chant may be deeply offensive without necessarily being a criminal offence. A legal adviser sits with police at protests to make those calls in real time, he said.

There is also the practical reality of dealing with a large crowd. “Sometimes safety dictates that we can’t go straight in and grab someone if they’re holding a sign, because obviously that can cause violence within a crowd,” he said. Where moving in is not safe, police record what happened and act afterwards.

“We don’t want any community to feel in fear. We don’t want any community to be intimidated by the actions of protesters,” he said.

Lanyon declined to comment on policing matters relating to the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that are currently being examined by the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

“I certainly don’t want to be in a place that I am preemptively speaking for what the Royal Commissioner may find,” he said.

“We will cooperate with the process. We will work with it … I just think it’s appropriate in the first instance that the Royal Commissioner does her work there. We will certainly accept recommendations that come out of the Royal Commission.”

He called the Royal Commission “a really healthy process”.

“It’s a process that the NSW Police support. We are very much engaged with the Royal Commissioner, because we want all agencies to take learnings out of it,” he said.

As for Chanukah this year, he said it will be risk-assessed like any event, but with a significant presence given what happened last year, and ARC up and running by then.

“What’s really important is, on the anniversary, I want to make sure community members feel safe to go to events,” he said.

Asked for any final thoughts, Lanyon said, “Jewish Australians are incredibly important to the NSW Police Force, but … I want to make sure that we are keeping all of the community safe.

“We’re also making sure that there is respect generally in the community,” he said. “What happened on December 14 is entirely unacceptable in New South Wales. It’s never been part of our fabric. I never want it to be again.”