• The obvious willingness of officers to move toward the danger…the culture of courage
• Communications… from first call to elimination of the threat was 8 minutes..this points to a very robust comms environment
• Speed of deployment…officers / units were obviously well positioned and knew their area of operations
• Surveillance…It is assumed that the speedy direction of officers onto the target was assisted by CCTV coverage of the area
• Force Projection…The police were able to deploy at least 6 officers to the incident very quickly

• The response appeared to be “panicky”…the police vehicle was not secured and appeared to roll into the incident because the handbrake was not applied. 
• The car did not appear to be positioned tactically (to afford safe deployment from the vehicle and provide a tactical advantage to the officers)
• Deployment from the vehicle appeared to be haphazard (not according to a pre-determined drill)… they just piled out and ran to the target without any real awareness of where the rest of their team was.
• The Police were myopic…every officer zeroed in on the obvious threat…who was “securing” the “flanks and rear” to prevent interdiction from another “threat” or to ensure civilians stayed away from the threat.
• Officers crossed each others lines on a number of occasions, some officers getting way too close to the target and one ended up going to ground with a terrorist.
• It was obvious that they weren’t trained as a team…there were no clear roles…they all zeroed in on the target.
• Officers arriving on the scene after the threat was neutralized barreled straight into the area and crossed lines of fire of officers who had already clearly neutralized the threat. Once again suggesting a lack of tactical command structure and team tactics, techniques and procedures.

• Training, Training, Training…individual weapon skills, team skills / drills, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures

Major General Andrew James "Jim" Molan AO, DSC (born 11 April 1950) is a former senior officer in the Australian Army.

During his career he was Commanding Officer of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Commander of the Army's mechanised 1st Brigade, Commander of the 1st Division and its Deployable Joint Force Headquarters, and the Commander of the Australian Defence College. In April 2004, he deployed for a year to Iraq to serve as the Chief of Operations for the new Headquarters Multinational Force in Iraq. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the Australian Government, and the Legion of Merit by the United States Government. In August 2008 Molan released his first book, Running the War in Iraq.

ENDS

And this from former NSW Police officer Peter Wallace