Public Policy/Police Studies
Book Details

Blue Army

Paramilitary Policing in Australia

Jude McCulloch

A detailed investigation of changes to policing in Australia, arising from research into the paramilitarisation of the police.

Opinion

‘McCulloch’s book is excellent - but don’t read it if you are home alone at night. You won’t necessarily feel safer knowing more about the police.’ (Chris Cuneen, The Age, Saturday 26 May 2001)

‘. . .well written, easy to read and with a good mix of theory and practical examples.’ (Michael Barnett, Journal of National and International Law Reform, Issue 79 2001)

About this Title

We expect the police to stop armed robbers, to arrest drug dealers, to keep the peace at demonstrations and to protect us from crime. Many of us believe that police officers need to carry guns to protect themselves as well as us.

But do we want our police forces to become armies? Most of us are shocked when suspects are shot dead by police before they can be tried, and disturbed to see police wearing riot gear and using baton charges at peaceful demonstrations. When police begin using paramilitary tactics, the essential nature of their role is redefined, switching from protection and peacekeeping to active aggression.

Some units within our police forces, such as the Special Operations Group, train with the military and use military weapons and tactics. In looking behind the extraordinary number of police shootings in Victoria, Blue Army examines how the Special Operations Group and their tactics—which are passed on to ordinary police—have contributed to the toll.

Jude McCulloch’s involvement as a lawyer in cases of police shootings led her to detailed investigation of changes to policing in Australia. Blue Army arises from her research into the paramilitarisation of the police. It exposes the risks of allowing Australia’s police forces to move away from the key principle of keeping the peace with the use of minimum force.

Blue Army is a very disturbing book, and one of great importance.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction: Paramilitary Policing and Counter-terrorism
1 The Police and the Military
2 Keeping the Peace
3 Calling Out the Troops
4 Sons of God: The Victoria Special Operations Group
5 Police and Firearms
6 Special Operations Group Fatal Shootings
7 Paramilitary Policing Goes Mainstream
8 Policing Dissent
9 Paramilitary Policing, Globalisation and the Future

Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Jude McCulloch lectures in Police Studies at Deakin University. She has worked as a community lawyer for many years and represented the families of several men shot and killed by police in the late 1980s.

Book Preview

978-0-522-84960-8