Surprisingly Topical! Reviewed in UK 30 July 2023
This book encompasses a history of policing from its early days. Centred on Bradford, but observations, accounts, facts and statistics are drawn from much wider, including the national perspective.
What is surprising? The emphasis is on policing by consent from the earliest formation of the police forces. This entailed very careful treatment of those apprehended and the idea of preventative policing, too. The latter was, of course, easier when you had a regular beat and knew the community. Little evidence of ‘heavy hands of the law’, which was prohibited by regulation! However, policing did often involve injury and even death for the patrolling constabulary. They had a rattle, or a whistle, to summon help, but communication until the telephone was practically impossible. The work was incredibly long and hard, with those regular, extensive daily and nightly walking beats. Bicycles helped, but took a long time to be accepted, and paid for, and came late in the period. The reduction of crime which these ‘beats’ produced was what motivated town and country to install police forces.
This is a very accessible account with excellent research and the issues then are very much the same as the issues now: pay, monitoring of behaviour, results etc. Although, even then, it was accepted that not all criminals could be found and taken into custody. The number of patrolling police – at least one per a thousand of the population, which in some areas rose to one officer per 500+ of the population, beggars belief in comparison with today. Especially when considering that these Victorian constables were on the beat, with very few involved in administration, or ‘superior officer’ duties! In other words, they did all the work.
Mary (Meesa) – Amazon customer
A great introduction to understanding a Victorian policeman's 'lot' Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2020
'A great book that is well written and easy to follow. Gaynor Haliday uses really appropriate anecdotes to explain situations and context which helps to illustrate the story of how policing in England developed through the nineteenth century. There is an immense amount of research underpinning the book but because it is so well written this is not just an academic essay, instead it is very informative and entertaining.
Well worth reading.'
Damon Rogers – Amazon customer
'Got this as reference for a project, which means that I intended to dip this book as I needed. The book was so well written however, that I found it a cover to cover read that I kept picking up every spare moment I had. If you want to know how the Victorians went about policing, this is certainly the book for you.' GoodReads, Jonathan Farley
' There is a wealth of information and case studies here, and anyone with policeman ancestors will find it useful. Gaynor covers areas such as recruitment, training and progression up the ranks, to how order was kept, looking at evidence of offences such as riotous or disorderly behaviour and how such behaviour was treated by constables on the beat. However, evidence of misbehaviour by the constables themselves is also explored.
Using Watch Committee minutes, newspaper archives and police records, Gaynor successfully creates an enjoyable narrative - one that has lots of information in it, but also has a light touch (like many of the pickpockets who worked in Victorian Britain, perhaps!)
Read it for: A well-illustrated account of what Victorian policemen did, and the laws and regulations affecting them.' Nell Darby, Your Family History, March 2018
'This is the kind of book that turns my key! Modern history with a personal flavour. Not the history of monarchy, politics and empire, but the gritty and sometimes grimy history of the police force. How it came about, its development and what it was like to be a constable in the formative years.
Ms Haliday has written a book which is thoroughly readable; it maintains the reader’s interest throughout and whilst being factual, drawing on references and records, it is not an academic volume. Nor should it be as this would inevitably reduce its readability to that of a dry reference book rather than a review of a particular element of social history.
If ‘Victorian Policing’ tempts the reader into academic research, then that is the time to open the dry tomes that lie, dusty and rarely opened, at the back of library shelves.' Dai Evans
' A fascinating insight into the trials and tribulations experienced by Gaynor Haliday's great, great grandfather and his fellow constables.
No Tasers, no radios; a whistle, a wooden truncheon to deal with anything from a drunk to more desperate criminals. A book that appeals to the serious students of criminology and sociology as well the reader who likes a more than readable account of the early days of the growing fight against crime. The research is excellent and the photographs so very illustrative of the growth of policing in the U.K.' Ted Holloway
'This book is thorough in its coverage. I would definitely recommend it to those interested in the period or writers of historical fiction.
The author does a good job of keeping the reader’s attention with her sensitive and intelligent writing.' Rosemarie Cawkwell
' Ms Haliday has produced a very useful and nicely illustrated compilation on the realities of early policing' Police History Society
' There’s a good selection of photographs, my favourite being of a police sports day: six coppers racing for the finishing wire, all in uniform and helmets. I don’t know why, but I found that photo very cheering; an enlargement hanging on my office wall to bring a smile on even the gloomiest of grey, rainy, workaday mornings'. Paul Begg, Ripperologist, December 2017 – January 2018
'This book offers really detailed, specific chapters that tell not just about policing, but the safety and (sometimes) the corruption of officers themselves. Policing beginning with sentry watchmen as early as 1285, while the true defence of home and property coming from private citizens and the own arms/weapons. It wouldn't be until 1833 that there would be a police force funded by taxes & tolls (in order to offer them salaries, pensions, uniforms, whistles, nightsticks, etc.) to take on incidents involving assault, theft, and poaching. The port towns of the UK are among the first to organize police services with private detectives recruited and on the streets in 1847. I was most amused to find out about the codes maintained for each police force (i.e. no swearing or threatening your police inspector, no being drunk on the beat, and how to thwart someone who is resisting arrest).' GoodReads, Kristine Fisher
Gaynor Haliday's great, great grandfather Thomas Bottomley served in the Bradford Police for 39 years. He never rose above the rank of constable, but had a long police career and was only once reprimanded. It was his life that led her to produce this lively and enthusiastic book.
Haliday is very good in her discussion of the working life of the Victorian police constable . . . if you want rattling good stories about Victorian policemen, look no further . . . Clive Emsley, WDYTYA magazine February 2018
