Australians tend to have an ambivalent attitude to their respective police forces. We automatically expect that they will be there in an emergency. We share their grief when one of their number is killed while on duty, yet we regard Ned Kelly as a folk hero, even though he was responsible for the murder of three policemen in 1878. Many of us are affected either directly or indirectly by serious road accidents, yet we will curse under our breath the police officer who pulls us over for speeding or using our mobile phone while driving.

Robert Haldane was a career policeman. He retired in 2001 with the rank of superintendent after nearly thirty years in the force. While a constable, he undertook a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) followed by a PhD on the history of the Victorian police force, the genesis of the first (1985) and subsequent editions of this book. This new edition revises the text where appropriate and chronicles the twenty-one years since the second edition was published in 1996.