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When Cops Are Criminals
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?
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?
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2024
21 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 15, 2025
4.5 ⭐️s
Distressing, intense and compelling
Once upon a time, I respected the police. However, that changed when I witnessed the unprofessional behaviour during the covid plandemic. Now, I’m openly distrustful and wary.
Even having a general idea of police misconduct, the sheer scale of corruption detailed in this book was a shocking discovery.
A must read.
Audiobook via BorrowBox
Published by Bolinda audio
Read by Nayuka Gorrie
Duration: 7 hrs 18 min. 1.25x Speed
Distressing, intense and compelling
Once upon a time, I respected the police. However, that changed when I witnessed the unprofessional behaviour during the covid plandemic. Now, I’m openly distrustful and wary.
Even having a general idea of police misconduct, the sheer scale of corruption detailed in this book was a shocking discovery.
A must read.
Audiobook via BorrowBox
Published by Bolinda audio
Read by Nayuka Gorrie
Duration: 7 hrs 18 min. 1.25x Speed
December 22, 2025
Exactly as horrifying and heartbreaking as you think it will be. All cops are bastards
September 11, 2024
This is a moving collection of writing from those who have suffered from police violence. This includes Aboriginal people targeted by racist police violence, partners of abusive police officers or their friends, and those who were police officers themselves. The pages quiver with anger, and the stories are impossible to look away from.
December 9, 2025
TLDR:
• The collection offers a critical examination of Australian policing, arguing misconduct is systemic, not merely incidental.
• A key institutional critique is the failure of internal accountability bodies (e.g., IBAC referrals back to police), suggesting self-protection over public oversight.
• The book provides necessary Aboriginal and Indigenous perspectives, challenging the dominant US/UK focus on police brutality in global discussions.
• The heavy reliance on lengthy personal memoir-style narratives occasionally sacrifices a cohesive, focused, and deep systemic analysis.
When Cops Are Criminals, is a significant and often difficult exploration of policing and state violence in Australia. Drawing on the context of Gorrie's own experiences as a Gunai/Kurnai woman and former officer, the anthology compiles accounts from survivors, academics, and campaigners. It functions as an indictment of the criminal behavior of some police officers and attempts to spur institutional reform, requiring Australian readers, in particular, to scrutinize the actual purpose and beneficiaries of their police force. The book is characterized by its bluntness and emotional content, though its overall critical power is somewhat uneven due to its structural approach.
Who Do The Cops Serve?
The book’s central premise is a critique that frames police misconduct not as the isolated actions of a few individuals, but as a systemic and institutional failure. Contributors detail various forms of criminal behavior, including brutality, sexual misconduct, racial profiling, and family violence perpetrated by officers. The primary institutional critique targets the ineffectiveness of accountability mechanisms; specifically, many complaints referred to oversight bodies, such as the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC), are frequently redirected to the police force itself for internal review. The implication is that the institution’s design prioritizes self-preservation and protection of members over accountability to the public, particularly marginalized groups. This reinforces the view that Australian policing is rooted in colonial violence and continues to disproportionately impact Aboriginal people.
Settler Colonial Violence: Continued
A crucial function of this anthology is its dedication to presenting Indigenous and Aboriginal perspectives on police violence. While global dialogue on this topic is extensive, often revolving around the United States and the United Kingdom, When Cops Are Criminals gives space to an Australian context that is rarely discussed. It exposes the ongoing role of systemic oppression and racial targeting, a dynamic shared with other settler-colonial nations, where similar issues affect Indigenous communities. The accounts, such as one detailing the experience of eighteen-year-old Jacky Sansbury, underscore a pervasive reality where the police are viewed as an inherent threat rather than a source of safety by First Nations people.
Systemic Analysis for a Systemic Problem?
A notable critique of the anthology lies in its structural and stylistic choices. The dependence on lengthy, personal memoir-style accounts occasionally results in a presentation that can feel overly anecdotal. While the honesty of the contributors is clear, some narratives could have been more concise and more clearly linked to broader themes. The intensity of individual trauma sometimes overshadows the opportunity to establish a comprehensive critical and systemic analysis. The book lacks a consistent, coherent analytic lens to effectively tie the reported individual harms directly into the institutional structures of power. A structure that edited the personal stories to more sharply focus on the systemic implications, followed by a concluding critical framework, would have offered the necessary analytic coherence and delivered the message with greater focus.
In conclusion, When Cops Are Criminals is a demanding and necessary collection. It provides a significant counter-narrative to the prevailing, often uncritical, perception of law enforcement in Australia. While the structure could have benefited from a tighter, more analytic editorial focus on systemic links, the cumulative weight of the collected testimonies serves as an urgent call for radical institutional reform that addresses the fundamental culture and structure of policing. It is still worth taking a look at this work due to the scarcity of words spoken about the topic, but one hopes for future works that offer a better structured analysis.
Synergistic Links and Further Reading:
• Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis: This work provides an exemplary model for applying a systematic critical lens to state institutions. Davis offers highly organized, well-structured arguments against the prison industrial complex and proposes a clear abolitionist framework. Her approach demonstrates the effective combination of historical context, critical theory, and focused analysis that is less consistently present in this anthology.
• Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel: This work, often utilizing a personal narrative or memoir style, illustrates how individual testimony can be integrated effectively. It exemplifies how powerful personal experiences can be connected seamlessly within a broader, anti-colonial or critical framework, maintaining a balance where the narrative does not become disconnected from the systemic critique, achieving a potentially more effective delivery of similar themes and ideas than that found in When Cops Are Criminals.
• Video Link This video features Veronica Gorrie, the editor of the book, discussing the book and police culture, providing more context to the collection's themes.
• The collection offers a critical examination of Australian policing, arguing misconduct is systemic, not merely incidental.
• A key institutional critique is the failure of internal accountability bodies (e.g., IBAC referrals back to police), suggesting self-protection over public oversight.
• The book provides necessary Aboriginal and Indigenous perspectives, challenging the dominant US/UK focus on police brutality in global discussions.
• The heavy reliance on lengthy personal memoir-style narratives occasionally sacrifices a cohesive, focused, and deep systemic analysis.
When Cops Are Criminals, is a significant and often difficult exploration of policing and state violence in Australia. Drawing on the context of Gorrie's own experiences as a Gunai/Kurnai woman and former officer, the anthology compiles accounts from survivors, academics, and campaigners. It functions as an indictment of the criminal behavior of some police officers and attempts to spur institutional reform, requiring Australian readers, in particular, to scrutinize the actual purpose and beneficiaries of their police force. The book is characterized by its bluntness and emotional content, though its overall critical power is somewhat uneven due to its structural approach.
Who Do The Cops Serve?
The book’s central premise is a critique that frames police misconduct not as the isolated actions of a few individuals, but as a systemic and institutional failure. Contributors detail various forms of criminal behavior, including brutality, sexual misconduct, racial profiling, and family violence perpetrated by officers. The primary institutional critique targets the ineffectiveness of accountability mechanisms; specifically, many complaints referred to oversight bodies, such as the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC), are frequently redirected to the police force itself for internal review. The implication is that the institution’s design prioritizes self-preservation and protection of members over accountability to the public, particularly marginalized groups. This reinforces the view that Australian policing is rooted in colonial violence and continues to disproportionately impact Aboriginal people.
Settler Colonial Violence: Continued
A crucial function of this anthology is its dedication to presenting Indigenous and Aboriginal perspectives on police violence. While global dialogue on this topic is extensive, often revolving around the United States and the United Kingdom, When Cops Are Criminals gives space to an Australian context that is rarely discussed. It exposes the ongoing role of systemic oppression and racial targeting, a dynamic shared with other settler-colonial nations, where similar issues affect Indigenous communities. The accounts, such as one detailing the experience of eighteen-year-old Jacky Sansbury, underscore a pervasive reality where the police are viewed as an inherent threat rather than a source of safety by First Nations people.
Systemic Analysis for a Systemic Problem?
A notable critique of the anthology lies in its structural and stylistic choices. The dependence on lengthy, personal memoir-style accounts occasionally results in a presentation that can feel overly anecdotal. While the honesty of the contributors is clear, some narratives could have been more concise and more clearly linked to broader themes. The intensity of individual trauma sometimes overshadows the opportunity to establish a comprehensive critical and systemic analysis. The book lacks a consistent, coherent analytic lens to effectively tie the reported individual harms directly into the institutional structures of power. A structure that edited the personal stories to more sharply focus on the systemic implications, followed by a concluding critical framework, would have offered the necessary analytic coherence and delivered the message with greater focus.
In conclusion, When Cops Are Criminals is a demanding and necessary collection. It provides a significant counter-narrative to the prevailing, often uncritical, perception of law enforcement in Australia. While the structure could have benefited from a tighter, more analytic editorial focus on systemic links, the cumulative weight of the collected testimonies serves as an urgent call for radical institutional reform that addresses the fundamental culture and structure of policing. It is still worth taking a look at this work due to the scarcity of words spoken about the topic, but one hopes for future works that offer a better structured analysis.
Synergistic Links and Further Reading:
• Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis: This work provides an exemplary model for applying a systematic critical lens to state institutions. Davis offers highly organized, well-structured arguments against the prison industrial complex and proposes a clear abolitionist framework. Her approach demonstrates the effective combination of historical context, critical theory, and focused analysis that is less consistently present in this anthology.
• Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel: This work, often utilizing a personal narrative or memoir style, illustrates how individual testimony can be integrated effectively. It exemplifies how powerful personal experiences can be connected seamlessly within a broader, anti-colonial or critical framework, maintaining a balance where the narrative does not become disconnected from the systemic critique, achieving a potentially more effective delivery of similar themes and ideas than that found in When Cops Are Criminals.
• Video Link This video features Veronica Gorrie, the editor of the book, discussing the book and police culture, providing more context to the collection's themes.
November 9, 2025
This is an anthology of true life Australian police related experiences written by some who work within the system, some who have needed police protection, and some on the receiving end of police attention. 12 different contributors are invited by the author, a former police officer, to share their stories of an ugly side of our policing system that is not always available to the public eye. A scary and depressing but eye opening introduction to a service whose primary role is above all to protect us all, the public and the men, women and non binary Australians of all races over who they hold power.
September 27, 2024
A Collection of Unrelenting Traumas That Sickens.
The honesty of the contributors - peeling off their years'-long tramas and laying them out for public scrutiny - is both shattering and instructive.
The examples of embedded, institutionalised, militarist, predatory, and belittling mindsets, procedures, and behaviours of the various police forces is sickening.
Thank you, Ms. Gorries and contributors.
The honesty of the contributors - peeling off their years'-long tramas and laying them out for public scrutiny - is both shattering and instructive.
The examples of embedded, institutionalised, militarist, predatory, and belittling mindsets, procedures, and behaviours of the various police forces is sickening.
Thank you, Ms. Gorries and contributors.
January 19, 2025
Equal parts powerful and harrowing, this is a must read. Survivors and those working to support them will find this immensely validating in exploring individual and organisational power and control and the challenges society and police culture place on seeking safety.
Powerful, well researched and eye opening.
Powerful, well researched and eye opening.
October 17, 2024
An absolutely appalling and heartbreaking collection of stories about interactions with Australia’s policing system. Beautifully compiled and edited - a must read for any person with an interest in social justice.
December 16, 2024
An insight into the institution of Policing in Australia. Racial bias, gender bias, domestic violence bias, the list goes on. The book highlights culture problems that span generations and how policing is dogged by these problems and how it affects us, the public, to this day.
October 1, 2024
Must read for everyone. Absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating but we need more books and publications that shine the spotlight on the injustices within Australian police.
March 17, 2025
Found it hard to understand and read but finally got through it
Read
April 10, 2025everyone living on stolen, unceded Aboriginal land must read this collection
Read
May 20, 2025Anyone who thinks the police are a vital community service should have to read this.
November 19, 2025
A powerful anthology of testimonies ranging from the perspective of Indigenous youth, domestic abuse survivors, support workers and an ex cop.
November 17, 2025
When Cops Are Criminals is a brilliant, yet confronting read by Veronica Gorrie.
It explores victim survivors stories, academics, and those within the police force and their first hand experiences. The experiences shared in this book are harrowing, from people being arrested by police, to partners and wives of men who are police members, who are protected by their own police force and tortured by the boys in blue.
A gripping and important read from Veronica Gorrie.
It explores victim survivors stories, academics, and those within the police force and their first hand experiences. The experiences shared in this book are harrowing, from people being arrested by police, to partners and wives of men who are police members, who are protected by their own police force and tortured by the boys in blue.
A gripping and important read from Veronica Gorrie.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews