Fair Cop: Christine Nixon

Fair Cop reveals the remarkable rise and controversial career of Australia’s first female Chief Commissioner.



Christine Nixon was a police officer for more than thirty years. After cutting her teeth in the New South Wales Police Force, where she attained the rank of Assistant Commissioner, Nixon was appointed Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in April 2001. Her eight-year tenure was characterised by her tough anti-corruption stance, her frequently acrimonious relationship with the Police Association and her high approval ratings with the Victorian public.



In this frank and engaging memoir, Christine Nixon opens up about the pressures of life in the public eye and working in one of the toughest jobs in the country. It follows her through the process of nurturing the recovery of communities devastated by Black Saturday. She talks about the philosophies that underpinned her reshaping of the Victorian Police Force, and the beliefs that have sustained her through many a maelstrom, culminating in the often-poisonous fallout from the Bushfires Royal Commission. It tracks her personal journey deep into the nexus of power, politics, policing, and upsetting the patriarchy.