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 |
JOHN McARTHUR
Director, Office of Staff Development, University of Southern
Queensland, Australia
THE HISTORY OFTHE FOUNDATION
OF A DETECTIVE FORCE IN THE
COLONY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Convictism brought much more than an injection of badlyneededlabour
and finance into thesmall colonyof Swan River.
It
caused an increase in
police numbers as well as a significant restructure and differentiation of
colonial policing.
The increasesin crime at thebeginning of the1850s werebrought about
by the presence ofmany ticket of leave convictswho found thetemptations
to revert to habitswhichhadserved them with dubious worth absolutely
irresistible. The increases also found the colonial policeunder immense
pressure to cope withchanging 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 additionalsix foot-policeto the ranksof thosealready servingin the
Perth district. On January12, 1853 Fitzgeraldwas to write again, onlythis
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 hisownwords:
"I regret ... to reportthe almostnightlyrobberiesand theftswhichare
taking placein the town ofPerth. Whatis equally tobe regretted isthe
impunity with whichthe daring depredators pursuetheir careers as, with
one exception, we have not obtained the slightest clue to their
detection."1
The governorshared the opinion that thoseresponsible forthe crimes were
to be found amongthe newlyarrived convict class. Thepublic,so the
governor wrote, challenged the colonial government to demonstrate what
it was doingto prevent the increasing criminal trend. The fault lay in
Fitzgerald's judgment with the limited ability of the police.
"I regret[the police]... are ofnecessity and with few exceptions ... a
set of men very unfit for the service ... [They are] generally chosen from
discharged soldiers and pensioners whose previous habitsin life in
some instances have had a tendency to beget an ineptitude and unfitness
for the office theyhold. ,,2
But it was probably notall their fault. Fitzgerald confessedthat in his desire
to "economize the public resourcesas muchas possible"he had,in effect,
limited the growthof the policeforce. Although six additional police had
April 1997 The Police Journal 141
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