PRAISE FOR THE PEOPLE’S FORCE
2nd edition

‘Inspector Haldane’s book is a must.’

Fr Bob Maguire, The Catholic Worker

‘The story told here is neither sensationalist nor scandal-mongering. Inspector Haldane’s methods of detection are unspectacular but effective. He is streetwise, he knows his sources and takes few witnesses on trust—more than one received interpretation collapses before his searching interrogation.’

Stuart Macintyre, The Age

‘… a meticulously researched and very readable work that will be of great value to the historian, armchair or otherwise’.

Australian Book Review

‘Robert Haldane writes in an easy and enthralling style and could be just as easily telling a mystery story …’

Alan Patterson, Australian Police Journal

‘The production in 1986 of former Superintendent Dr Bob Haldane’s history of the Victoria Police, The People’s Force, marked the 150th anniversary of the first police presence in the Port Phillip district of the colony in 1836. Revised in 1995, his opus has given us the luxury of an acclaimed, scholarly record of the factors contributing to the development of policing in Victoria. Not only has Dr Haldane honestly examined significant events and personalities of the past, but also with the highs and lows associated with them. The People’s Force enables us to understand our evolution and is essential reading for past and present members of Victoria Police. It also serves to give the general public a better understanding of the development of their police force.’

Chief Commissioner S. I. ‘Mick’ Miller (Retired), Victorian Historical Journal

‘Dr Haldane has written a book in elegant language … The title, The People’s Force, is a superb one for it is the theme and the hope of the book.’

Dr Jim Cairns, Overland

‘This eye-opening history of the Victoria Police grown through more than a century of governmental obtuseness, left me with great respect for the force and some wonder at its survival as a functioning body.’

George Turner, The Age

‘More than just a dry collection of dates, names and events, the book is a sweeping tour of 150 years of the state’s social and political history, reflected by the constantly changing police force.’

Greg Thom, Herald Sun

‘… the historian of the Victoria Police, Robert Haldane, has presented a view of that force which, while not seeking to hide many unsavoury elements of its history, presents it primarily as the police which the people deserved’.

Mark Finnane, Police and Government

‘Haldane’s history ought to be recommended reading for criminologists, national crime commissioners, police chiefs and judges.’

Chris McConville, Victorian Historical Journal

‘[Haldane] narrates events and organisational changes with a commendably high degree of objectivity that makes a convincing end to a worthwhile history.’

Brigadier F. W. Speed, Defence Force Journal

‘… a refreshingly honest look at the history of the Victoria Police … written with a sensitivity and style unusual for policemen who are usually preoccupied writing in police jargon’.

Carolyn Turner, Warragul Gazette

‘This unlikely combination of the skills of the historian and copper results in a history which is both critical of the police and at the same time written with the benefit of inside knowledge.’

Marjory Holt, Agora 1987

‘… this is a valuable and important work. There is an incredible wealth of historical material here. The work was done with care and detail … It is an important document for the serious student of policing, or criminology, in Australia.’

Kenneth Polk, Australian New Zealand Journal of Criminology