Fair Cop

About the book:

It's no surprise that Christine Nixon grew up to be a cop. Her father Ross brought his police work home with him often: she helped mull over crime-scene photos at the kitchen table and helped lug seized weapons in from the car. She was one of the first women in Australia to move into operational policing and ultimately became Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria.

My thoughts:

When I heard that Nixon was publishing her memoirs I was really looking forward to reading the final work. Aside from being Australia's first female commissioner of police, she also spend a fair part of her career in the New South Wales Police Force (rising to the rank of assistant commissioner under Peter Ryan) and ended her career heading up the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (in the wake of the Black Saturday bush fires of 2009).

I wasn't disappointed either. Nixon speaks freely and frankly about her life and career. She comes across as a decent woman who did the best job she could. And where she's make mistakes, she admits to them. My own view is I think it's really unfortunate that her reputation has been tarnished certain sections of the media. My only disappointment with the book is that she didn't spend a great deal of time covering her time in New South Wales, especially the Peter Ryan years. But that's a minor quibble in what was a very entertaining and interesting read.