Commander Grant Edwards possesses over 33 years of policing experience at the local, national and international level. He has worked in the transnational crime areas of counter terrorism, international organised crime, drug trafficking, people smuggling, human trafficking, Child Exploitation and Cyber Crime.
Commander Edwards has previously been posted internationally as Liaison Officer Los Angeles, to Timor-Leste as the Commander Timor-Leste Police Development Program and Security Advisor to the Timor-Leste Secretary of State for Security. He also served in Afghanistan as the AFP Commander Afghanistan Mission and Deputy Head of the International Police Coordination Board.
Grant is presently the Manager Americas based in Washington DC and responsible for liaison within Canada, USA, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
Prior to taking up his current assignment, Grant was the AFP’s Aviation Commander for Queensland, encompassing Gold Coast, Brisbane and Cairns International Airports.
Grant holds a number of academic qualifications including a Master of Policy and Governance from Charles Sturt University and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Anthropology and Indigenous studies from the Australian National University.
Following a number of suicides by AFP members in 2017, Grant went public with his own struggles with PTSD in attempt to highlight the impact mental trauma injuries have on those in the policing profession. This was chronicled in August 2017 on the ABC television Australian Story Series at – http://www.abc.net.au/austory/the-strong-man-opener/8825290 .
Grant has also been very proactive in devising and hosting a global policing symposium on mental health in Washington DC bringing together world experts in the policing profession, policy and medical support experts to devise best practices for supporting police.