Citations:plastics

English citations of plastics

(Australia, derogatory, possibly dated, police slang) Australian Federal Police officers

• 1986 September 2, Philip Castle, “Grafting pains in Federal Police amalgamation”, in The Canberra Times‎^[1], page 6:

  It was unfortunate that the differences developed into name-calling, where the former ACT Police officers called themselves the "reallies" and others the "plastics" or "perspects". Some of the former Commonwealth Police officers called the others "village idiots".

• 1994 October 31, Norma Allen, “Now cop this reunion”, in The Canberra Times‎^[2], page 15:

  Like all service people who meet after years of separation, the yarns were of the old days. The odd stoush and rivalry between the plastics and realies, […]

• 2004, David Baker, “The Reinvention of Australian Federal Policing in the Pursuit of National Security”, in International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice‎^[3], volume 28, number 2, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, →ISSN, page 149:

  The merger with ACT police was riddled with problems, especially between the “plastics” [former Compol members] and the “Village Idiots” [ACT Police] (Cooper 1991:105)

• 2016 April 22, Saskia Hufnagel, Policing Cooperation Across Borders: Comparative Perspectives on Law Enforcement within the EU and Australia‎^[4], Routledge, →ISBN, pages 226–227, [using it as an adjective]:

  Problems were particularly reported between the AFP and state/territory police as the AFP have a reputation for being better educated (as a graduate intake force) which does not enforce the respect of state/territory police who consider ‘experience’ more important (AFP officers without ‘on-the-beat’ experience are consequently also called ‘plastic’, as they are not ‘real’ police officers and carry plastic badges).

• 2019 July 22, Grant Edwards, The Strong Man: A powerful story of life under fire and one man's journey back from the brink‎^[5], Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, →OCLC, [book also contains a section titled "Joining the plastics" – clearly a use, not a mention]:

  They dismissed the AFP as a serious force, mocking the simple entrance exam and the fact that recruits didn't need to do a physical test. They derided their officers as ‘plastics’ – as in, they weren't real cops

• 2020 September, BlueStar Magazine‎^[6], number 11, Australian Federal Police Association, page 40:

  This was a rocky period initially, with the ACT members being mocked as “plastics” – due to COMPOL being regarded as a secretive band of night watchmen and bodyguards, as opposed to good old fashioned community police – after the merger.