Before I Sleep: My Life Fighting Crime and Corruption

A unique insider’s view of life at the top Force.

In the early 1970s, Queensland was a haven for crooks from both sides of the law. It was into this hothouse that Ray Whitrod was controversially appointed as police commissioner in 1970. Just six years later he resigned from the head role of the Queensland Police Force, no longer willing to tolerate the interference of the Bjelke-Petersen government. It was a decision that the Fitzgerald Inquiry would later, gloriously, vindicate.

From his early start in the teenage police cadets in Adelaide, Ray Whitrod rose through the ranks to command not only the Queensland police but the Commonwealth and Papua New Guinea forces as well. In wartime, he had trained and flown as a navigator with the RAAF in Europe and the Middle East. After the war, he helped to found ASIO, operating both in the field and from behind a desk.

At once a personal memoir and a rare insider’s view of the police profession in transition, Before I Sleep now includes a new introduction by Matthew Condon, author of Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers, who celebrates Ray Whitrod’s distinguished contribution during his years on the force and the unique role he played in the history of the Queensland police.