Internal police politics can make cage-fighting look as dangerous as stamp collecting.

This is probably because there used to be a promotion appeal system where an officer could argue in a court-like process they should have got the job rather than the successful applicant. This involved ego, ambition and dirty pool.

In the early 1980s, my father Fred, who had just been appointed Chief Inspector in charge of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, suffered a heart attack.

Days later I opened the front door of the family home to a concerned police colleague asking about his condition. Days later that officer appealed against the appointment citing Silvester’s ill health. He lost. Fred recovered. He did not receive a get well card from his “mate.”