Police and Politics in Australia — The Case for Historical Revision

Abstract

Contemporary arguments about policing in Australia have been marked by a concern over an increasingly interventionist role of police in politics. Police, both departments and unions, have been playing a prominent role in public debates over law and order issues,police staffing levels and other policy matters. It is argued that historical scrutiny of policing since the 1890s indicates a continuing role and influence ofpolice in both policy making and law reform. Ifsuch has been the case, then understanding the contemporary political role of police in Australia requires re-evaluation of the changing contexts affecting the visibility and prominence of police interventions.

‘Cop[ying] it Sweet’: Police Media Units and the Making of News

“…The first formal public relations branch specifically created to deal with media issues within the NSW Police Force was introduced in 1964 (NSW Police Force, 1965) and can be considered as a reaction to what has been described as a 'crisis of consent' or confidence in police organisations that was being experienced across much of the western world during the 1960s and 1970s (Edwards, 2005;Finnane, 1990Finnane, , 1994. In the Australian context, the 1960s and 1970s marked a period of political and social dissent over matters such as Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, Indigenous rights, standards of health and welfare, the equality of women, abortion law reform and censorship matters (Chan, 1997;Edwards, 2005;Finnane, 1987Finnane, , 1990Finnane, , 1994. Internationally, civil rights groups -including Blacks, women, gays, prisoners and mental patients -became increasingly affirmed and their influence grew, leading to important shifts in the balance of power between 'government' and the 'governed' (Garland, 2001).…”

Longitudinal Analysis of Australian Filicide Perpetration Trends: Filicide in Victoria, 1860–1920

“…This article takes the position that historical criminology is best defined as criminology done in a historical mode (Churchill 2019) because historical criminology is 'the only methodologically robust means by which to evaluate the potential for the past to help explain the present' (Lawrence 2019: 493). Using archival sources to create richer and clearer continuities and dislocations between the past and the present has been successfully applied to topics of penal history (Cox and Godfrey 2020; Guiney 2018; Nagy and Piper 2020, 2019; Piper and Nagy 2017, 2018), policing (Churchill 2018;Finnane 1990), immigration (Kaladelfos and Finnane 2018), and crime prevention (Churchill 2016). Therefore, the focus of this article is on creating a historical work of criminology, rather than writing the history of crime-this distinction is an important one.…”

An Interdependency Model for Police Executive Relationships

“…224-6) contends that commissioners have always been partners with police ministers in the development and assessment of police policy. However, politicisation of the police and policing policy (their commitment to the controlling efforts of the ruling political élite), according to Finnane (1990), becomes possible due to the appointment or promotion of senior police officers through party influence, a situation consistent with the broader issue of the politicisation of the public service generally. In this regard, Whitrod (2001, p. 184) a former police commissioner in the state of Queensland maintained that the promotion of Terry Lewis to Assistant Commissioner by the government was one of the key issues that led to his resignation.…”