ABSTRACT
Since the formation of provincial police forces across England and Wales in the mid-nineteenth century, Chief Constables have taken a lead role in preserving the peace and preventing disorder in times of protest. The challenge that has faced Chief Constables from their inception to the present day has been one of maintaining a just balance between order and liberty. This chapter analyzes how, through the use of wide discretionary powers, provincial public order strategies have been inconsistent, changeable and at times politically partisan. The combined influence of Chief Constables and their Watch Committees is examined in relation to the threat of public disorder which ranges from the Chartist activism in 1839, Suffragette militancy and the march of the unemployed in the 1900s, fascist and communist related disorder in the interwar years and the inner city riots and political protests of the 1980s. Throughout these incidents, the leadership and personality of Chief Constables played a significant role in each force’s response. By aligning individual Chief Constables, such as Francis Burgess, Sir Charles Haughton Rafter, John Maxwell and Kenneth Oxford among others, with their distinct responses to threats of disorder, the discretion within police leadership is examined and the capacity to employ autocratic control revealed.
