The History of the Foundation of a Detective Force in the Colony of Western Australia
| Author | John McArthur |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9707000209 |
| Published date | 01 April 1997 |
| Date | 01 April 1997 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
JOHN McARTHUR
Director, Office of Staff Development, University of Southern
Queensland, Australia
THE HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION
OF A DETECTIVE FORCE IN THE
COLONY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Convictism brought much more than an injection of badly needed labour
and finance into the small colony of Swan River.
It
caused an increase in
police numbers as well as a significant restructure and differentiation of
colonial policing.
The increases in crime at the beginning of the 1850s were brought about
by the presence of many ticket of leave convicts who found the temptations
to revert to habits which had served them with dubious worth absolutely
irresistible. The increases also found the colonial police under immense
pressure to cope with changing and accelerating criminal behaviour. By
1853, Governor Fitzgerald had successfully requested that the Secretary
of State for Colonies andWar, Sir John Pakington, agree to the appointment
of an additional six foot-police to the ranks of those already serving in the
Perth district. On January 12, 1853 Fitzgerald was to write again, only this
time there was agreater sense of urgency. The colony was incrisis. It was
a crisis in law and order and levels of house burglary and theft had reached
unprecedented levels. In his own words:
"I regret ... to report the almost nightly robberies and thefts which are
taking place in the town of Perth. What is equally to be regretted is the
impunity with which the daring depredators pursue their careers as, with
one exception, we have not obtained the slightest clue to their
detection."1
The governor shared the opinion that those responsible for the crimes were
to be found among the newly arrived convict class. The public, so the
governor wrote, challenged the colonial government to demonstrate what
it was doing to prevent the increasing criminal trend. The fault lay in
Fitzgerald's judgment with the limited ability of the police.
"I regret [the police] ... are of necessity and with few exceptions ... a
set of men very unfit for the service ... [They are] generally chosen from
discharged soldiers and pensioners whose previous habits in life in
some instances have had a tendency to beget an ineptitude and unfitness
for the office they hold. ,,2
But it was probably not all their fault. Fitzgerald confessed that in his desire
to "economize the public resources as much as possible" he had, in effect,
limited the growth of the police force. Although six additional police had
April 1997 The Police Journal 141
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