The British Police

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1951, The British Police describes the different types of police force, the powers and functions of local police authorities, the ways in which control from the centre is exercised, and the effect of the Local Government Boundary Commission’s proposals on police areas at the time. Special emphasis is placed on what happens in practice and not only in theory, and on developments during and after the second world war. Chapters are included on (amongst other things) the special position of the Metropolitan Police Force, emphasizing the independence of the ‘Yard’ from the Home Secretary’s control; on recruitment, training, promotion, and the police college; pay and conditions of service, and policewomen. At the time of first publication the work was intended to be of use to university students in the Social Sciences who had previously had no up-to-date book to reply on; it would also have interested the general reader by attempting to answer such questions as to whether the local basis of the British police service was – as was so often claimed – the key to the good relations of the police with the public and one of the great safeguards of personal liberty in Britain. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.