Commissioner Michael Joseph Keelty

Commissioner Michael Joseph Keelty
APM

Police Commissioner, Australian Federal Police;
Deputy-Chairman, Australian National Council on Drugs

Michael Joseph Keelty Appointed Commissioner in March 2001, Mr Keelty is a career police officer with more than 30 years experience at local, national and international levels. He is the first Commissioner appointed from within the ranks of the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The AFP is Australia’s national policing agency, performing the community policing role in the Australian Capital Territory as well as enforcing Commonwealth criminal law and protecting Commonwealth interests from crime, both within Australia and abroad. It is also Australia’s international law enforcement and policing representative — with 86 officers, based at 31 posts in 26 countries — and the chief source of advice to the Australian Government on policing issues.

Since his appointment, Commissioner Keelty has led the expansion and transformation of the organisation to take on major new responsibilities in the areas of counter-terrorism, protective security, airport security, and peacekeeping and capacity building in the region. The AFP has implemented a range of initiatives — domestically and overseas — to address these responsibilities and combat all types of transnational crime including online child exploitation, cyber crime, child sex tourism, sexual servitude, drug trafficking, money laundering and identity crime.

Commissioner Keelty is the Chair of the Board for the Australian Crime Commission — membership of which includes his counterparts from State and Territory Police and the heads of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Australian Customs Service and the Attorney-Generals Department.

He also co-chairs the Asia–Pacific Group on Money Laundering, which comprises 32 member countries and is affiliated with the Financial Action Taskforce — the international policy making body on money laundering.

Commissioner Keelty is a member of the Business Government Advisory Group on National Security, a forum for high-level dialogue between business and government on national security, which works closely with bodies such as the Trusted Information Sharing Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (TISN). He is also patron of the Australian section of the International Police Association.

As AFP Commissioner, he assumes the role of representative of Interpol in Australia and as a result of the collaborative relationships formed between AFP and the Asian region, he represents Australia at ASEANPOL which includes the heads of 10 Asian police forces. Commissioner Keelty is one of 21 members on the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Committee and holds a position on the Board of Government of the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation.

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Commissioner Michael Joseph Keelty APM

Commissioner Michael Joseph Keelty
APM