25 July 2021
11:00am – 12:30pm
Police Headquarters
200 Roma Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
This lecture is not suitable for young children.
This lecture is BOOKED OUT.
Unfortunately the lecture WILL NOT be livestreamed, however we have opened a wait list.
Please email museum@police.qld.gov.au if you would like to attend.
Keith Banks is a former Queensland police officer who served from January 1975 to February 1995.
He is the recipient of two Queensland Police Valour Awards and the Bravery Medal. During his service Keith worked in various uniformed stations including Brisbane Mobile Patrols, as an undercover operative with the Drug Squad, a Detective in the Criminal Investigation Branch, the Metropolitan Task Force, the Tactical Response Group (the forerunner to SERT), the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and finally in Crime Operations.
Keith is the best selling author of Drugs, Guns and Lies, an autobiographical account of the first ten years of his service with a focus on undercover duty. Published by Allen and Unwin, It is raw and confronting and details his experience with corruption and the impact of undercover work on both himself and his undercover colleagues. It has been called ‘The best true crime novel in a decade’ by John Silvester, Crime reporter for The Age newspaper in Melbourne.
His second book, Gun To The Head, about his experience as a Tactical Response Group member, is due for release on July 20, 2021. This book includes a chapter on Operation Flashdance which resulted in the death of Senior Constable Peter Kidd in 1987, the grave wounding of Constable 1/c Stephen Grant and the death of the offender. Keith has written openly about his descent into PTSD and the impact of that on his life for the next twenty-five years. it is also a story of ultimate recovery.
Keith is a firm advocate for first responders with PTSD and is committed to helping remove the stigma around mental health and particularly PTSD. He lives in Melbourne and works as a Chief Operations Officer in a not for profit organisation. He is also a Peer Support volunteer with Police Veterans Victoria.
This presentation will be of major interest to both veteran and serving police and he hopes will assist in furthering the conversation around dealing with PTSD in first responders.
This one-and-a-half-hour presentation will start at 11am on Sunday, July 25 and will be both informative and educational.
The Museum opens its doors to the public on the last Sunday of each month from 10am to 3pm from February to November in addition to the standard Monday to Thursday 9am to 4pm opening hours. Monthly Sunday openings feature guest speakers from across the historical and crime-solving spectrums.
The Police Museum will open Sunday, July 25 from 10am to 3pm, and is located on the ground floor of Police Headquarters, 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.