ABSTRACT
Policing does not exist in a vacuum. Indeed different policing systems in different nations are as much direct results of the various histories of their countries as of their current environments (Emsley 1991; Mawby 1999; Rawlings 2002). French and Italian police colleagues scratch their heads at the British idea of ‘protecting the public’ because their raison d’être is to protect the state; those German police officers deployed solely within the Bundestag do not wear uniforms because German politicians feel uncomfortable being seen too close to uniforms; their near European neighbours in the former Soviet bloc are bravely trying to shrug off the idea that policing is about patrolling and controlling the minds of citizens; while many police organisations in the developing world appear to expend more effort shoring up the power of the rulers of the day than supporting the rule of law.
