ABSTRACT
Law enforcement cooperation across Australian state and territory borders has traditionally been demonstrated through ad hoc ‘agreements’, special operational projects or forged through federal government intervention to shore up existing state and territory legislation. 2 However, a cross-border initiative originating in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory (NT) in 2003 provided for police collaboration between state lines to minimize the effect of borders for the purposes of law enforcement and the delivery of justice services. This chapter provides an overview of the Cross-Border Justice Project (CBJP) as it unfolded in the wake of a series of concerns voiced by Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPYWC) members about safety and security in remote indigenous communities. The chapter focuses almost wholly on the collaborative alliance between the NT and Western Australia (WA) because the multi-jurisdictional concept discussed here and the infrastructure to support it have, at the time of writing been developed in these jurisdictions.
