Blood on the Badge

Alan Leek is a 34-year veteran of the NSW Police Force. He served as a detective in Sydney, its suburbs, and the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains regions before becoming officer-in-charge of the Blacktown–Mt Druitt detectives. Rising through the ranks to superintendent, he later commanded several of the state’s toughest areas, including Cabramatta at the height of its heroin epidemic and during Australia’s first political assassination.

Leek also held leadership roles at Kuring-gai, Newtown, and the St George–Sutherland district, where he was appointed by statute. Leaving school at 15, he began his working life as a rouseabout in a wool store before joining the police cadet corps.

He holds an Associate Diploma in Justice Administration (Distinction), a Post Graduate Diploma in Police Management, and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, USA. In 1987, he was awarded the Peter Mitchell Award — not for bravery, he notes, but for outstanding performance.

Outside policing, Leek co-founded and directed a fine art gallery from 1983 to 2012. He is a full-term trustee and patron of the Kedumba Collection of Contemporary Australian Drawing, held in trust for the Australian people.