Tim Priest

Who is Tim Priest?

Tim Priest, is a former New South Wales police Detective Sergeant in Australia. He served in the suburb of Cabramatta and led a Police revolt against his Commanders for failing to take action on gang crime and heroin dealing in South West Sydney.

He wrote a book called To Protect And To Serve with Richard Basham about his experiences dealing with the drug trade and the police service.

In 2002 he gave evidence to an enquiry into the crime and drugs ridden suburb of Cabramatta and attracted national and international headlines. His testimony led to the resignation/sackings of the State's Police Minister, Education Minister, Police Commissioner, Deputy and Assistant Commissioners. Major changes were made to the State Police Force and the way that Police now handle gangs and drugs in Sydney

The Cabramatta Parliamentary Enquiry's final report recommended that the Government adopt some of the initiatives that Tim Priest offered as a means to solving the crisis in Cabramatta. Ultimately the NSW Government adopted the recommendations and the NSW Police implemented them in 2002.

In 2003, he gave a talk at a Quadrant dinner in November 2003 entitled "The Rise of Middle Eastern Crime in Australia" in which he also talked about his experience policing specific Lebanese households, and criticised Peter Ryan and Mike Carlton. However, in 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald, said of Priest's talk: "It has become a celebrated story, told by the whistleblowing former policeman Tim Priest. The trouble is, it isn't true. ... Priest was compressing good detail to make a point, and saw nothing wrong with that... Priest observed "All it did was open the debate because for whatever reason there are a number of people in academia and in the government that did not want to talk about Middle eastern crime".