The AFP has farewelled Commissioner Reece P Kershaw APM, who retired today (3 October, 2025) after more than 37 years of distinguished service to the Australian community.
Minister for Home Affairs, The Honourable Tony Burke MP, joined family, friends and current and former AFP members, as well as State and Territory Police Commissioners and other partners, for a ceremony at the Edmund Barton Building in Canberra to celebrate the career of Commissioner Kershaw.
It culminated in a march out of AFP Headquarters, including a guard of honour, before the Commissioner signed off as 'AFP1' over police radio and performed a final salute to Commissioner-designate Krissy Barrett APM.
The handover marked the end of more than 37 years in law enforcement, with a decade at the rank of commissioner, including the past six with the AFP.
Commissioner Kershaw joined the AFP in 1988, commencing in ACT Policing in Woden District. He was promoted into several commands, including Close Personal Protection, victim-based crime, high tech crime operations, and transnational serious and organised crime.
He also served the AFP in postings to The Hague, East Timor and Solomon Islands, and undertook secondments to the National Crime Authority and the Australian Crime Commission.
In 2011, he joined the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services as an Assistant Commissioner, and rose through the ranks to become Northern Territory Police Commissioner and Chief Executive of Fire and Emergency Services in 2015.
Following his return to the AFP and appointment as the eighth Commissioner in October 2019, he implemented new strategies to dismantle organised crime, including the creation of specialist teams to locate and arrest global fugitives and high-value targets.
Commissioner Kershaw established the Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team, which has located 66 fugitives in Australia and overseas, and Operation Gain has led to the arrest of 35 alleged organised crime figures.
One of the defining moments of the Commissioner's tenure was 2021's Operation Ironside, the largest organised crime operation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Operation Ironside was a three-year, covert investigation into significant organised crime syndicates that were using a dedicated encrypted communications device, named AN0M, to traffic illicit drugs and weapons to Australia, as well as order local executions.
In Australia alone, almost 400 people have been charged with more than 2,300 offences.
These types of investigations have been pivotal to increasing domestic drug seizures, which since 2019, have prevented more than $70 billion in harm to the Australian public.
Commissioner Kershaw also re-prioritised the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce, which has restrained almost $1.3 billion in proceeds of crime since 2019.
He also chaired the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group between 2020-2022, working with global agencies to fight cybercrime, online child exploitation, transnational serious organised crime and radicalisation.
A specialised High Risk Terrorism capability was established to support a new Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command, and through the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, the AFP is helping protect Australia from spies and espionage.
Saving children had always been a primary driver for the former child protection investigator and the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) was a key priority during his tenure.
The ACCCE continues to be the country's nerve centre in helping to keep our kids safe. Between 2019 and 2025, the AFP has identified more than 1000 victims of online child sexual abuse.
In 2020, Commissioner Kershaw established Operation Dolos, a multi-agency AFP-led taskforce targeting cyber criminals, returning $465 million to victims. The following year, a dedicated Joint Policing Cybercrime Coordination Centre was created to help counter some of the most pervasive cybercrime threats against Australians and Australian businesses.
Also in 2020, Commissioner Kershaw set up an AFP-led National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons, which helped resolve 54 previously unidentified human remains and provide answers to 19 long-term missing persons cases across Australia.
He reinforced the AFP's international presence and boosted partnerships in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe to help stop crime at source countries.
Significant investment has been directed at professionalising the workforce, advancing a more gender-balanced agency, and increasing personnel by more than 18 per cent to address growing federal crime.
During his tenure, the AFP Reserve was created, which supports retired members to stay connected to the AFP and provide a surge capability when needed, as well as SHIELD, which provides AFP members access to leading health and wellbeing services.
The Commissioner also proudly established the AFP Innovation Fund which, since 2020, has invested in some 100 projects, across 19 AFP Commands, to develop capabilities for the future of policing and community safety.
His years of dedicated service have also been recognised through awards including the Australian Police Medal; Police Overseas Service Medal with Clasps 'EAST TIMOR' and 'RAMSI'; National Police Service Medal; National Medal with 1st Clasp; Commissioner's Group Citation for Hazardous Overseas Service; AFP Service Medal with 1st Clasp; AFP Operation IRONSIDE Citation; AFP Operation PROTECT Citation; AFP 40th Anniversary Citation; Northern Territory Police Force Outstanding Leadership Medal; French National Order of Merit - Officer Grade; Insignia of the Order of Timor-Leste; French Homeland Security Medal - Bronze Level 'for remarkable commitment to fostering police-to-police engagement with French law enforcement'; United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) Medal; and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force International Law Enforcement Cooperation Medal.
For Commissioner Kershaw, retirement means having more time with his family and enjoying being a grandfather.
