Lesa Gale was appointed to the role of Deputy Commissioner in March 2023 and has responsibility for the International & Specialist Capabilities (IS&C) portfolio. The I&SC portfolio encompasses four Commands that deliver the AFP’s specialist capabilities including Intelligence, Covert Services and Forensics as well as leading AFP’s international engagement aimed at combating transnational crime, capacity-building missions, contributing to regional stability and responding to international incidents.
In 2020, Lesa was appointed by Commissioner Kershaw to establish and lead the AFP’s Northern Command. In this role, Deputy Commissioner Gale led a command comprising AFP offices across Queensland including Cairns, Gold Coast and Brisbane. In addition to this, Deputy Commissioner Gale was the designated specialist command lead for the AFP’s global, national and local response to Human Exploitation crimes and is the head of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
During her distinguished 35-year career, Deputy Commissioner Gale has combined significant leadership expertise across national investigations, community policing, victim based crime and national security portfolios. This has included leading the delivery of business outcomes through deployments in AFP Commands in Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney. Promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner in 2018, in the role of National Manager Protection Operations, Deputy Commissioner Gale was responsible for the delivery of protection services and aviation functions both nationally and internationally, to associated threat and risk environments, for the Commonwealth and in doing so introduced significant capability enhancements to protecting Australia’s national security interests.
A career highlight for Deputy Commissioner Gale was her appointment as the AFP’s Commander for Victim Based Crime (2016). In this role, she led and delivered innovative high impact outcomes for victim-focused crime encompassing; Human Trafficking, People Smuggling, Child Protection and Exploitation and Harming Australian’s Offshore. Deputy Commissioner Gale also represented the AFP at the Santa Marta Group at The Vatican, and at the World Congress in Dublin, Ireland where she delivered a landmark keynote speech titled ‘The Global Realities of Child Exploitation and Australia’s innovative approaches to combat in the online and offline world’.
Deputy Commissioner Gale is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Police Management’s flagship program, the Australia New Zealand Police Leadership Strategy, and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). Deputy Commissioner Gale holds a Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Management (2017) and was awarded the Australian Police Medal (APM) in the 2019 Australia Day Honours. Throughout her career, Deputy Commissioner Gale has been awarded five Commissioner Group citations for Conspicuous Conduct and two Australia Day Medallions.