Raymond Wells Whitrod served the people of South Australia as a police officer between 1934 and 1949. His rise to the rank of Detective preceded becoming the Assistant Director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 1949. In 1953 another promotion secured the Directorship of the Commonwealth Investigation Service, based in Canberra.
Educated by the Australian National University in Arts and Economics, and then by Cambridge University in Sociology and Criminology, Mr Whitrod was an advocate of merit based promotion. His preference to recruit and promote police officers with formal education was recognised with his own promotion in 1960 by the Commonwealth Police who rewarded Mr Whitrod with the Commissionership. The Papua New Guinea Police then appointed him as their Commissioner 9 years later, Mr Whitrod moving his family to Port Moresby for the position.
First United Nations Cyprus Police Contingent being sworn in by Commonwealth Police Commissioner Raymond Whitrod at the R.A.A.F. Base, Canberra, 21.05.1964.
Image No. PM1969 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
With this impressive policing history, and the ‘advantage of knowing police methods and routine, without the friendships and associations inevitable among officers who have spent all their working lives in the Force’, (Harris, B. Courier Mail 1969), the Queensland Police Force appointed Raymond Whitrod as Deputy Commissioner, to immediately sit in the chair of the Commissioner upon the pre-retirement leave of Norwin W. Bauer.
Queensland’s Commissioner of Police Raymond Wells Whitrod, 1970.
Image No. PM2307 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
At the beginning of his time in the top job in 1971 Mr Whitrod received an application from 21 year old Toowoomba Constable Wayne Bennett, for leave without pay to attend a Rugby League training camp in Brisbane. The application was denied due to concerns over a potential shortage of police, and setting precedents. The ban was quickly overridden by Premier Mr Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Constable Bennett trained at Lang Park and went on to score the only points for the Queensland Firsts with a goal in front of 19,308 spectators.
The Police continent march on Queen Street, Brisbane, in the ANZAC Day Parade of 1975.
Image PRNeg 1975-SL147 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
In contrast to views about denying a police officer leave, and for such a good cause, Mr Whitrod was very much on the side of his police officers. His continued encouragement of police to increase their educational qualifications was backed by the approval of these applications, and his visitation to many country police stations in efforts to learn what makes bush centres tick was highly regarded. Raymond Whitrod resigned in 1976 and returned to his home state, and the city of Adelaide.
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This article was written by Museum Assistant Georgia Grier from the best resources available within the Queensland Police Museum. The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT- CoP Raymond W. Whitrod” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode