One of Sydney’s most popular tourist hotspots is vulnerable to a terror attack, the inaugural head of NSW Police’s Armed Response Command (ARC) warns, as officers prepare to start operating in what he says is a changed national security environment.
The $94 million command, established in response to the Bondi Beach terror attack last December, will from Sunday begin patrolling places of worship, major sporting events and mass gatherings, as it gradually replaces the NSW Police operation tasked with combatting antisemitism.
Its inaugural commander, Detective Superintendent Andrew Evans, says officers will also focus on tourist hotspots in Sydney, including Circular Quay, where he believes the estimated 50 million train and ferry passengers who transfer through the transport hub annually are particularly vulnerable.
“The security environment nationally, unfortunately, has changed. People don’t like hearing that, but that is unfortunately the sad reality we face currently in Australia,” Evans told the Herald ahead of the command’s first day of operations.
Evans said the vulnerability of tourist hotspots and mass gathering locations would be reduced by the presence of ARC officers, who will be privy to real-time national security intelligence to identify potential terror attacks and prioritise where resources are deployed.
Relevant information from intelligence bodies, including the nation’s spy agency ASIO, will be shared with the command’s operations centre staffed 24/7 by intelligence analysts, Evans said.
Officers initially responding to the Bondi attack were armed only with service pistols. Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram allegedly used a high-powered rifle and a shotgun to shoot dozens of people, 15 fatally, attending a Hanukkah celebration on December 14.
ARC officers will be armed with shortened versions of the semiautomatic Australian Combat Assault Rifle developed for military and law enforcement use. The rifle will be kept with them at all times and carried in high-risk areas, and the shortened version will allow officers responding to active incidents to access firearms quickly while en route and engage offenders immediately.
Officers will patrol Sydney in purpose-built vehicles – BMW X5s and Toyota LandCruisers – fitted with technology that allows them to receive real-time intelligence from the command’s operations centre and locate nearby police resources. Assault rifles will be kept in gun safes inside the vehicles.
The ARC’s priority will be to deter potential terror attacks through high-visibility policing at public and religious events, but officers are trained to respond to active armed offender incidents. Officers stationed around Sydney will be expected to respond to major incidents within minutes. The Bondi attack lasted about six minutes before the Akrams were shot by police.
ARC officers have undergone behavioural observation training to help identify individuals at high-risk locations who may pose a threat, and tactical medical training. The command is modelled, in part, on similar units operating in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, and is expected to comprise 250 officers when it reaches its capacity at the end of 2027.
“These are all things that we say are world leading,” Evans said.
Alongside intelligence, information from community groups will help determine where and when resources are deployed, while multicultural liaison officers will serve as a conduit between the command and community members.
Information sharing between state and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the lead up to the Bondi attack came under intense scrutiny and was a key focus of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
Current intelligence sharing between agencies is efficient and effective, Evans said. ARC officers will have access to intelligence held by NSW Police’s counter-terrorism command.
The phasing out of Operation Shelter as the ARC reaches full capacity next year will not impact community protection, Evans said. Officers working under Operation Shelter – the NSW Police response to rising antisemitism and Islamophobia after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack – are regularly deployed to high-risk Jewish community locations in Sydney.
Evans said a proposal for volunteer members of a Jewish security group to carry firearms at public religious events is a matter for the NSW government to consider, adding the ARC’s capabilities would supersede what Sydney’s Jewish and Islamic communities have previously seen.
“I am conscious that 10½ months ago, 15 lives were lost at a Jewish event, and we will certainly strive to prevent that type of incident ever occurring again,” he said.
Briefing the command on Monday, Evans said officers would need to earn the trust of the public, which he said “rightly expects a police force that is prepared, accountable and capable”.
“Operational readiness is about ensuring that if the community needs us on its worst day, we can perform at our best,” he said.
“The role of the Armed Response Command is built on a simple principle: preserving life.”
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