About the Book
This cops memoir exposes the many jobs that police were exposed to during the 80s and 90s. Some of these events were very sad, some very serious while others provided a giggle.
After graduation from the Redfern Police Academy in 1982 I was immediately thrown into General Duties and the cauldron of the wild west of Cabramatta, the cultural melting pot of Australia at that time.
Three years at Cabramatta were a mix of the daily humdrum of GDs with motor vehicle accidents, domestics and break and enters interspersed with the peril of vehicle pursuits, an armed siege and a massive brawl. My time there culminated with the Milperra mass murder. My time at Cabramatta saw my confidence rise from a rookie constable learning on the job to being the senior man on the truck.
With that fortitude I was fortunate enough to secure a transfer to the supposedly peaceful coastal area of Forster/Tuncurry where I returned to being the junior man of six officers, which included two Detectives. Here I was exposed to working alone for much of the time, town taming two towns and four villages.
The mundane jobs encountered in the country were no different from many at Cabramatta. Again, many events were drenched in sorrow, excitement and mirth. It was not unusual to not only be the enforcer of infractions, but also its victim.
During that first five years at Forster the entire ambit of policing, including wild brawls, riots and the constant visitor to the police station, death was encountered. Death arrived in many formats including vehicle accidents, suicide, child death and the odd murder or attempt thereof.
That period in General Duties ended with a transfer of but a few metres into the Detectives office for the remainder of my career.
The description and type of police work faced while in uniform was not as complex as my depiction of the tasks encountered as a criminal investigator. That role as a Detective was one that changed from being reactive and dealing with relatively simple investigations to those of a more complex nature.
The stories of these investigations unfold as they did at the time, some quiet simple and others lengthy and perplexing.
My descriptions of these events reveal the real underbelly of this small police patrol. Forster was our base, however we detectives also managed major crime in the surrounding towns of Nabiac, Gloucester, Bulahdelah and Tea Gardens where a dark side to the districts blissful existence was exposed.
Dramatic events such as the attempted murder of a young mother and the subsequent suicide of the offender, the savage sexual assault upon another young mother by four hoodlums and a further sexual assault of a young woman by two men where a number of hurdles were encountered.
This utopian life came to a crashing end with a simple arrest, which turned, into a fight for survival where the offender was shot.
My book gives a small and varied sample of a coppers life with tales of the many real events that unfolded during a twenty plus year career. All cherry picked to provide the reader with a broad grasp of the work that many of our police are confronted with each and every day.
Table of Contents:
Contents
Introduction - The Cops, not just a job
Part 1 - GDs Cabramatta 1982
1. Taking the plunge. 4
2. Small fish enters the big pond, again. 11
3. Taught by the wise. 20
4. Business as usual. 24
Part 2 - GDs Forster 1985
5. A change of pace. 37
6. Tragic and not so tragic endings. 46
7. A new police station? Tuncurry. 64
8. Policing a serious business? 73
9. GDs, Day in Day out. 85
10. Paid to be a punching bag. 96
11. Making a difference. 114
12. Dealing with the locals. 138
Part 3 - Ds Forster 1991
13. Detectives, full time. 148
14. All rounders. 181
15. Time in the bush. 195
16. Fire-fighter/Fire-lighter. 208
Part 4 - A real Police Station
17. Getting on with the job. 218
18. A family affair. 238
19. Odd jobs. 250
20. Who's the wolf? 261
21. Bastard. 276
22. Teamwork. 284
23. Koori bus, safe streets. 291
24. Local knowledge. 321
25. Minor hurdles. 337
26. The didge. 352
27. Never let go. 358
Epilogue & Glossary
About the Author :
A former boilermaker, miner, barman, bus and tour operator, police officer, event manager and now author, I am a bloke who likes to tell a good yarn. Born and bred in Broken Hill in far west New South Wales, I was twenty years of age working in the bowels of the earth digging for my living, in the same area where my father died just five years beforehand. With a lifelong yearning for something different, I was keen to escape the dry barren plains that surrounded my birthplace.
The town was a safe haven for its inhabitants with safe well paid employment and health facilities, it provided everything that one would want. I was different. At 21 years of age I traveled to Sydney for the first time and immediately hopped aboard QF1 to London. My arrival in February brought me, in my mind to the coldest place on earth. I enjoyed life and work in London and traveled throughout the continent. Once the winter approached, I decided upon Asia as a respite. By April I was back in London and driving buses for Top Deck Travel around Europe eventually moving onto the overland, to and from Kathmandu in Nepal.
My time with top Deck ended after my final trip, the 20 week Sydney to London overland in 1980. My future was uncertain until an unknown Aussie girl suggested that I join the N.S.W cops. Mathilde from the Netherlands, a punter on my final trip and I set up home in Sydney where I soon joined the cops. After 21 years in the job and a comfortable life in Forster with my wife and our three sons, I retired 'Hurt on Duty' from the N.S.W police. I spend much of my time now keeping up a certain level of fitness to counter the regular relapses of my injury. I also enjoy dragging memories out from the past and committing them to print.
Review :
JULY 2019 REVIEW; Neville Taylor. The Cops – Not Just a Job is not a book for the faint hearted or sensitive reader. However if you want a taste of the day to day life of a cop attempting to deal with people most of us would not like to encounter, this is the book for you. It deals with events like break & enters, suicides, drug overdoses, thefts, home invasions, gang rapes and murders. All are seen through the eyes of a person responding to and investigating such events. The book is essentially in two parts – reflecting the author’s working life. The first part deals with the author’s time as a general duties officer. Here the events occur rapidly and I was left asking many questions – who were these people, what were their backgrounds, what happened. However I realised a general duties cop often does not know the answers to these questions. He/she just has to deal the event, on the spot, the best they can. The second part of the book describes events in the author’s life as a detective. Here we begin to be able to understand the background to the crimes and what happened after the initial event. Here we meet some very undesirable people – a group of teenagers who gang rape a woman. The experience, so horrific, that she hoped that she would quickly die during the rape; a man who kidnapped his partner who was attempting to leave him. He then shot her and, as she was dying, raped her; an escapee, who was determined not to return to goal, attempts to knife the author. Fortunately, for the reader, humorous incidents intersperse these crimes to give the reader some relief. After reading about many of these incidents, I had to stop and digest what was being described. I was left wondering how a person could cope emotionally with going to work every day knowing that they would probably have to deal with the most confronting events imaginable and also that there was a reasonable chance that you could be injured. The fact that I ask these questions probably indicates why I never wanted to join the police force. Congratulations on writing the book. It was a good read. The Cops – Not Just a Job gives an insight into a side of life most of us do not experience. Further I think the book would be very useful in a police academy situation as it raises many issues – ethical, practical and psychological – which would be helpful for both serving and prospective police officers to discuss
