This book is based upon a doctoral thesis presented to La Trobe University in 1985. Many people have rendered assistance, support and encouragement in connection with both the original thesis and the book. Although it is not possible to thank individually everyone who helped, I am sincerely grateful to them all and some need to be especially acknowledged.
The chief commissioner of police, S. I. Miller, conceived the idea of a ‘warts and all’ police history, afforded me the opportunity to write it and gave me his full support at all times. Importantly for me, in a manner uncharacteristic of many policemen of his generation, he allowed me absolute freedom to write it as I found it.
In furtherance of Mr Miller’s original ‘warts and all’ idea, three accomplished historians influenced the course of my work. Professor A. G. L. Shaw of Monash University greeted Mr Miller’s concept enthusiastically and steered it into an academic environment. He envisaged a work with a scholarly basis. The late Professor Roger Joyce agreed with this and warmly welcomed me into the History Department of La Trobe University. Finally, Dr John Barrett supervised my thesis. A tough, copybook supervisor, he always understood the policeman in me, while doing his best to make me a scholar.
I received willing assistance from the staff of various universities, libraries, archives and historical societies. Their advice and interest often meant the difference between a day of enjoyable historical discovery and a wasted day of dusty despondency. I am particularly grateful to the staff of the Public Record Office (Laverton), the Borchardt Library (La Trobe University), the Central Correspondence Bureau (Victoria Police) and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and to Christine Paterson of the Police College Library.
I received unstinting support from my police colleagues, and especially thank Bob Stewart and Alan Tickell for their understanding and encouragement. I offer my special thanks to the many retired policemen who patiently answered my questions and volunteered their reminiscences.
A fruitful source of inspiration, ideas and criticism have been the members of the History Department of La Trobe University, whose encouragement has been unfailing. I particularly thank Doug Morrissey, who shared the fruits of his own scholarship with me.
I am especially grateful to Celia Thomas and Linda Barraclough, who helped me unravel masses of archives, and Pam Vella, Tracey Davies, Loree Rochester and Kathy Murphy, who typed my often-messy manuscript. Dennis Ball and Nancy Renfree willingly proof-read for me, Anne Mitchell assisted me with graphs, and the police statistician, Dr Andrew Macneil, was a source of relevant statistics and valued constructive criticism.
My wife, Frances, I sincerely thank for her ongoing assistance and forbearance. Herself an accomplished Australian regional historian, she stoically shared the emotional moments of my academic and writing experience; and, her home brimming with police books and memorabilia, she was my severest critic and staunchest ally.
An updated edition ten years on: I pondered for some months on the wisdom of this project. In an even more acute form arose the old problem of how to balance the insight of the insider with the detachment of the historian. Was the work even necessary? In the end I decided, yes.
The past decade has been a dynamic one for the Victoria Police Force, and fundamental to my sense of history is the notion that history is created as it happens, made by people who often do so without knowing it. This edition was partly inspired by Jack and Elizabeth, my young son and daughter, whose daily presence is a constant reminder that what I still think of as contemporary events are their ‘olden days’.
And what of the insider’s insight? I have tried to view with a historian’s eyes events of which I was part even if I am unashamedly a copper first and most other things second.
A number of people provided assistance with this edition. I thank them all and in particular extend my thanks to John Barrett and Bill Robertson, who commented on drafts; Shirley Jones for typing; and Christine Paterson of the Police College Library for help with reference material.
Robert Haldane
Buchan
January 1995
It has been more than thirty years since The People’s Force was first published in hard cover by Melbourne University Press. A scholarly work, it was the fruits of my doctoral thesis, and since those heady days in 1986 it has been updated and revised twice and reprinted three times—long enough for a large section of the force who were born after the 1980s to have since unknowingly created their own pieces of police history and moved on to other things.
Since 1995, when the updated second edition was published, the Victoria Police has undergone some tumultuous changes and has been a part of or present at almost every significant event in Victoria. This updated and revised third edition spans the commissionerships of seven chief commissioners and embraces a montage of diverse events that include the appointment of the nation’s first female chief commissioner, the Black Saturday bushfires, the gangland war, the discovery of trace DNA, the callous slayings of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller, and the fatal shooting of Senior Constable Anthony ‘Tony’ Clarke, who was shot while working on a solo traffic patrol.
The third edition of The People’s Force has undergone a long gestation period, and for a time it seemed that it would never make it to the printers. My own health issues and changes in police command have at different points imperilled the project, but throughout this time retired chief commissioner S. I. ‘Mick’ Miller has championed the cause and stamped his formidable imprimatur on the challenge at every opportunity. But he has not been alone in his passion for the project.
A thirty-year veteran of the Victoria Police and proud of its heritage, the then chief commissioner Ken Lay set the wheels in motion and gave me unstinting support at all times. His successor, Graham Ashton, has a keen sense of history and has been just as encouraging and patient in his backing of the project.
Retired assistant commissioner Bill Robertson, my confidant and an author in his own right, did the heavy lifting when I was flagging. His research, writing and understanding of the task meant that the project was able to reach fruition.
Retired assistant commissioner Kevin Scott, who almost single-handedly saw through the production of the second edition, came on board as a reader for this edition. He was joined by former assistant commissioner Peter Nancarrow and senior public servant and police researcher Cliff Owen. Assistant commissioner Steven Fontana has shown a keen interest in the venture; Caroline Oxley and Sergeant Terry Claven from the Police Museum assisted with fact-finding and photographs; former policewoman Glenn Zimmer commented on drafts; my sister-in-law Rhonda Coates was a reader and enabler when times were tough; and police historian Ralph Staveley has been a staunch, empathetic ally throughout.
Police librarians Christine Paterson and Carol Lomas-Fisher have again shown that they are peerless in their knowledge of police-related literature, history and reference material. In her capacity as a police librarian, Christine has worked with the Victoria Police for almost forty years and has been a mainstay in the publication of all three editions of The People’s Force.
I would like to acknowledge the team at Melbourne University Publishing: project manager Cathy Smith, senior editor Louise Stirling, editor Katie Purvis and typesetter Patrick Cannon.
In 1986 I thanked my wife, Frances, ‘my severest critic and staunchest ally’, for her help and forbearance with the first edition. In that regard, little has changed. Across three decades and three editions, our lives together, for better or worse, have been punctuated by the omnipresence of The People’s Force.
Robert Haldane
Buchan
August 2017