Desmond Rowland

1936–1998

Desmond Rowland The Law Enforcement Handbook was first published in 1983. Twenty-five years later, the book, now in its fourth edition, remains a bestseller, used by police services, commercial security companies, and law enforcement studies programs across North America. This latest edition is a tribute to the memory of Superintendent Desmond Rowland and a testament to his remarkable career as a police officer. It has been updated by Des’s original co-author, James Bailey, and his son, Detective Stephen Rowland. Born to a family of ten kids in the small town of Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1936, Des Rowland joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland) at the age of 18. In addition to normal patrol duties, he served with a police paracommando unit on the border with the Republic of Ireland, which came under frequent attack by terrorists. This experience was in sharp contrast to his subsequent police service in Bermuda, where he joined the colonial police force in 1959. “There was sunshine, very little crime, and we didn’t even carry weapons,” he once said in a newspaper interview. “It was like a vacation” in comparison with his experience in Northern Ireland, he added. During that period, he met Stephanie, a young Canadian woman working as a hairdresser at the Elbow Beach Hotel. They married in Bermuda, and in 1961 moved to Stephanie’s former hometown of Cooksville, Ontario. Des joined the Toronto Township Police Force, an

1 books in the database