ABSTRACT
In this section the main issues that we will be addressing are the reasons for the emergence of modern policing at the beginning of the nineteenth century and how policing has developed since then.
In his detailed political and social history of the English police, Emsley (1996a) argued that since the middle of the nineteenth century there has been a growing centralisation of the police in England; and that this cannot be explained in terms of some sort of conspiracy but is rather due to a number of particular pressures that have moved policing in this direction. First, there has been what Emsley describes as ‘a rationalizing of the police in the interest of what has been seen as economy and efficiency’, a process that has involved legislation to reduce the differences between different police forces and a limiting of the authority of police committees of local government. Second, during periods of national emergency, closer contact between local police forces and central government was established – in periods of war and widespread strike activity, for instance. And while such measures may have been intended only as temporary centralising measures, they set precedents. Third, as the police became seen as professionals in handling crime and public order, so government ministers and civil servants began to communicate directly with the experts and to bypass amateur local police committees. This growth of professionalisation led senior police officers to discuss and decide policy with one another – again marginalising local committees.
