Karen Chisholm
REVIEW
Code of Silence, Colin Dillon & Tom Gilling
Reviewed By
Friday, March 16, 2018
Shortlisted for the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards, this is the story of a very impressive man. Read this and you won't help but be reminded of the line 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'.
Col Dillon is one of the good men. You have to agree with the blurb: he's an extraordinary man. The first Indigenous policeman in Australia, he was also the first serving police officer to voluntarily appear before the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry to give first-hand evidence of police corruption. He did that despite knowing full well the fallout that would come his way. He did it because it was the right thing to do.
This is one of those books that just needs to be read. Not just because it open up about the stunning array of criminal activities that are indulged in from within the police force, but because it shows the price honest people and their families pay in these circumstances. Which is just about the most stunning part of this book, that and the fact that we constantly need reminders that the triumph of evil is just there under the surface all the time.
BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
BLURB
The powerful true story of the first police officer to lift the lid on police corruption in Queensland and what then happened to him.
'Wherever there is power and money, there is always the risk of corruption. But everyone has a choice: to become involved or to take a stand against it.'
Colin Dillon is an extraordinary man. He was the first Indigenous policeman in Australia. But that is actually a very small part of his story.
He was also the first serving police officer to voluntarily appear before the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry in 1987 and give first-hand evidence of police corruption. He did this at a time when the Fitzgerald Inquiry was beginning and struggling for traction. His evidence at the Inquiry was instrumental in eventually sending some police, including Police Commissioner Terry Lewis, and politicians to prison.
Revealing, powerful and uncompromising, this is the story of Colin Dillon's nearly 40 years in a police force rotten to the core. It describes the extraordinary range of criminal activities - drugs, gaming, SP bookmaking, brothels, vehicle theft - that were allowed to operate with impunity in return for bribes. It also tells of the high price an honest man and his family paid for his decision to break the code of silence.