The 1923 Victorian police strike occurred in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In November 1923, on the eve of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, half the police force in Melbourne went on strike over the operation of a supervisory system using labour spies, nicknamed "spooks". Riots and looting followed as crowds poured out of the main Flinders Street railway station on the Friday and Saturday nights and made their way up Elizabeth and Swanston Streets, smashing shop windows, looting, and overturning a tram. Reasons for the strike The strike started late in the evening of Wednesday, 31 October 1923 – the eve of Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival – when a squad of 29 constables at Russell Street Police Headquarters refused to go on duty, citing the continued use of spies by management. The Victoria Police force at the time was understaffed, lowly paid in comparison with other state police forces, and had no industry pension, with the government continually deferring promises to introduce a pension program. The Police Association had made repeated attempts to improve the pay and conditions of the force, but the immediate cause of the conflict was the decision by the relatively new chief commissioner of police, Alexander Nicholson, to set up a system of four "special supervisors" to secretly monitor beat cops as they went about their duties. Drawn from police ranks, those men were given the derogatory nickname "spooks". The strike was led by Constable William Thomas Brooks who, along with 16 colleagues, had been dismissed from the licensing squad earlier that year, without explanation, and returned to the beat. That might have been connected with the fact that, two years earlier, Brooks had circulated a petition among his fellow officers calling for better conditions. Headed Comrades and Fellow Workers, it was signed by almost 700 men. The strike was not a Police Association initiative, although the organisation negotiated with the Nationalist government of Victoria, led by the Premier, Harry Lawson, on behalf of the strikers. Most of the strikers were constables, many of them returned servicemen. Detectives and senior officers did not participate. After 24 hours, the Premier demanded a return to work and promised no victimisation, although there was no promise to meet the strikers' demands. After 48 hours, the Premier again demanded a return to work but with no guarantees regarding victimisation. The Victorian Trades Hall Council, surprised by the wildcat strike, volunteered to