Two recent incidents made me believe that few serving, or former police officers, would know how this privilege came about. The incidents were to hear of an inspector changing into plain clothes and using his identity card to travel home free-of-charge and another police officer removing his name tag while enjoying this same privilege on trains.

Many have all heard of the power of former Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and the power behind the Premier, Allen Callaghan, his Press Secretary. It was probably 1980 when Brisbane did not have the security officers and Railway Squad members riding its trains like today (very effectively I might add). My recollection is that there was much vandalism and unlawful conduct on Brisbane trains, so much so, that it was unwise for females in particular to travel on them at night.

I recall distinctly Allen Callaghan telephoning then-Commissioner, Terry Lewis, and complaining about his son and another youth—possibly his brother or a friend—being assaulted on a train one weekend by a group of 'hoons'.

Also I recall later being advised by the Commissioner that he had told Allen that a quick fix to this problem would be to allow police officers—whether in uniform or plain clothes —to travel free-of-charge on the suburban train network. (Up to that time any police officer who travelled on a train had to pay his or her fare and there seemed to be few exceptions to this policy.)

It was soon after this telephone call—and probably the next day—that Cabinet decided to allow police officers this privilege which still remains in place today. While most, if not all, police officers taking advantage of this privilege are not aware of its origin, it is hoped that there are not too many using it for other than the reasons intended by Cabinet.