When Cops Are Criminals

ed. Veronica Gorrie

‘These harrowing testimonies and contextual essays lay bare how some in the police and justice system continue to intimidate and punish those they are supposed to protect.’

Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Each chapter addresses the enduring and systemic racism, homophobia, misogyny, institutionalised toxicity, and dysfunction that enable and excuse individual and collective abuses of policing power … The chapters largely focus on individual experiences, through deeply personal narratives and victim-survivor vignettes … This book is accessible, confronting, heart-breaking and anger inducing. The details and experiences may be shocking but, for all too many readers, they are unlikely to be surprising.’

The Conversation

View all reviews

‘Brings together the perspectives of those who have survived criminal police behaviour, those who campaign against or study it, and the extraordinary challenges facing the brave people who seek to challenge and change it.’

Elke Power, Readings

‘Devastating … When Cops Are Criminals is intended to provide a tough wake-up call to the many Australians who, despite the slew of Royal Commissions and coronial inquests, still find the concept of rampant police corruption and criminal wrongdoing difficult to believe.’

Sam Elkin, Aniko Press

‘Exposes the dark underbelly of police culture, where officers often see individuals not as people but as objects to exploit. It is a call for accountability and transparency, essential steps towards repairing the broken systems of power that have long oppressed our people.’

Nerita Waight, CEO of Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service

‘Powerful and illuminating … this collection insists on the importance of personal stories, and together they point a way forward towards justice and truth.’

Yumna Kassab, author of The Lovers

‘A must-read cataloguing of grotesque, state-sanctioned violence, and of the impunity of the torture and death squads that this colony calls police.’

Debbie Kilroy OAM, CEO of Sisters Inside

‘The bravery of many of the contributors to this book is remarkable … [V]ital reading for anyone wanting to understand how things got so bad, and what might be done to create an Australian law enforcement environment with some connection to actual justice.’

David Lowe, Red Ant

Praise for Black and Blue:

‘Black and Blue is a work of epic storytelling, a memoir authored by Gunai/Kurnai woman Veronica Gorrie. This is a book that must contend on every page with structural racism and the violent legacies of colonialism, from the account of Gorrie’s childhood to her experiences working in the Queensland police and raising a family as a single mum. It’s the memoir of a survivor, a resilient woman. If Black and Blue is a grim indictment of institutional racism, Gorrie’s highly distinctive voice ensures that it is also surprisingly funny and candid.’

Judges’ comments from the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards' Douglas Stuart Prize for Non-Fiction

Praise for Black and Blue:

‘Gorrie’s distinctly Indigenous storytelling makes us feel like we are sitting with her by the fire in the backyard listening to the resounding immediacy of her words. Her warmth and love and care for her readers is felt throughout the book … [Black and Blue] is especially crucial at this moment in time. It challenges us to think about power and society, and the possibility of changing the world we live in.’

2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Judges’ Comments

Praise for Black and Blue:

‘Black and Blue is the extraordinary kind of memoir that has you laughing and then, in the next paragraph, feeling like all the wind has been taken out of you with shock. Veronica Gorrie tells her story of growing up as a Gunai/Kurnai woman in Australia, and then going on to be a police officer in Brisbane where she witnessed and was the target of personal and structural racism. Her voice is so clear and sharp it feels at times like she is talking directly to you and she has a unique gift of threading a story with small details and sideways routes that add to the odd charm of the book. It is a story of great resilience but also of great love, in her family and also in her community.’

Bridie Jabour, The Guardian, 25 Best Australian Books of 2021

‘A compelling, comprehensive account of one of the most violent and dangerous gangs in the country.’

Chelsea Watego, author of Another Day in the Colony

A powerful indictment of the criminal behaviour of police officers, and a call for institutional reform, edited by the multi-award-winning author of Black and Blue.

When Cops Are Criminals examines the widespread problem of police brutality and corruption from the perspectives of those who understand it in depth. Pulling together the accounts of survivors, campaigners, and academics, it explores different forms of criminal behaviour by police, the factors that contribute to it, the impact it has on victims, and the challenges of holding perpetrators accountable.

Told with candour, honesty, bravery, and rage, these stories will challenge readers to reflect on the institutions that so many people take for granted. Whose interests are they really serving? And where can people turn when the institutions that are supposed to protect them are the ones doing the damage?

‘These harrowing testimonies and contextual essays lay bare how some in the police and justice system continue to intimidate and punish those they are supposed to protect.’

Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

The Conversation

View all reviews

Elke Power, Readings

Sam Elkin, Aniko Press

Nerita Waight, CEO of Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service

‘Powerful and illuminating … this collection insists on the importance of personal stories, and together they point a way forward towards justice and truth.’

Yumna Kassab, author of The Lovers

‘A must-read cataloguing of grotesque, state-sanctioned violence, and of the impunity of the torture and death squads that this colony calls police.’

Debbie Kilroy OAM, CEO of Sisters Inside

David Lowe, Red Ant

Praise for Black and Blue:

Judges’ comments from the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards' Douglas Stuart Prize for Non-Fiction

Praise for Black and Blue:

2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Judges’ Comments

Praise for Black and Blue:

Bridie Jabour, The Guardian, 25 Best Australian Books of 2021

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:304pp

ISBN (13):9781761380402

RRP:$36.99

Pub date:30 Jul 2024

Rights Held: World

High-res cover:Download Image

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Veronica Gorrie

Veronica Gorrie is a Gunai/Kurnai woman who lives and writes in Victoria. Her first book, Black and Blue (2021), won the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature and the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, as well as being shortlisted for the 2022 Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction and the 2022 ABIA Small Publishers’ Book of the Year.

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When Cops Are Criminals

ed. Veronica Gorrie

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Multi-time winner of the Australian Small Publisher of the Year Award