The Roaring Twenties were a golden era for criminals when rapid societal changes created new illicit markets for entrepreneurial criminals. Police had to face challenges ranging from reckless joyriders to the rise of the Mafia and razor gangs in fast times.
The New South Wales Police Department photographers captured the era’s zeitgeist in these candid portraits of cocaine dealers and addicts, sly-grog purveyors, and small-time criminals who frequented the cells of Sydney’s Central Police Station.
