What is the Special Operations Group Tasmanian police unit?

Australia Broadcast Center

17-06-2025

What led to the fatal shooting of Tasmania Police Constable Keith Smith will be pieced together over coming days or weeks, with investigations continuing.
The involvement of the Special Operations Group, which was at the property, will form part of that.
Tasmania's Special Operations Group, or SOG, is similar to other highly-trained tactical police units around Australia.
The Tasmanian SOG has been a full-time unit, with 20 members since 2024, stationed in the south and the north.
Prior to this, the SOG consisted of three part-time units.
The group performs a wide range of functions including helping breach buildings, attending sieges, drug lab searches, and other high-risk jobs.
Police Minister Felix Ellis said the move to full-time has "significantly bolstered" the ability to respond to high-risk situations.
Police Association of Tasmania (PAT) president Shane Tilley told the ABC SOG members were the "elite" of Tasmania Police.
"They are highly trained individuals who are trained in less lethal capabilities — they are trained to use long arms, pistols."
"They may not be required to go into an address, [they could] … simply just run a little bit of security around the perimeter," said Mr Tilley.
Commissioner Adams said the SOG had attended over 800 jobs in 18 months as part of its "frontline response" work.
"Now, that we have a permanent Special Operations Group, we can deploy our Special Operations Group in a wider, broader manner," she said.
She said they assisted police officers with "routine duties", including the response to retail crime.
Mr Tilley said a "good portion" of the 800 jobs the group had attended would have been searches, often involving the drug squad.
"Some would be high-risk searches, others would have a lower level of risk attached to them," he said.
He said it was a "blessing" to have the SOG on the ground being used more often now.
He said the officers who picked up a job would normally approach the SOG "if they thought that there was potential for things to develop", and that they would attend "if they thought they could help".
Thus far, Tasmania Police has not revealed much about why the specialist tactical group were at the North Motton property on Monday, as officers delivered a court-issued warrant.
"There are lots of questions that we all have as a result of the incident, and that's why we need to be really methodical in our investigation," Commissioner Donna Adams told reporters in Devonport.
Commissioner Adams said the SOG had been requested for the job and had waited at the bottom of the driveway, while two officers, including Constable Smith, approached the house.
She said they had responded after Constable Smith was shot.
"They were also threatened by the offender, and they shot the offender in the hand before making an arrest."
She told ABC Hobart Mornings that "had it not been for their presence I think we would have been confronted with a number of other deaths".
She did not provide any information on why they had been requested, or why there may have been a heightened level of concern about the job.
A police spokesperson said they weren't able to respond to questions regarding SOG methodology for "operational reasons".
Mr Tilley said it was his understanding this was not an "authorised SOG job" and that they were there as support.
"Those members from the SOG were simply there to act as backup units and assistance if it was required," he said.
He said the SOG crew responded "within seconds" to the situation.
"There will be opportunities down the track, as part of this investigation, to see what those assessments came to but clearly the resource was in the area at the time and able to attend the address."