ABSTRACT
The police exercise their state-sanctioned authority over citizens and they regulate conflicts between them.This means that policing is inherently controversial and inevitably contested. It is a delicate social institution that requires effective mechanisms of accountability and a certain level of legitimacy in the eyes of the public whom it bears down upon. In this context, the police should be analysed in terms of ‘what they do’ and ‘how they do it’ but they should also be discussed critically by looking at ‘who they do it for’ and ‘what they do but shouldn’t’.This chapter will plot the history of policing, discuss the roles, cultures and functions of the police, look at mechanisms of accountability, and examine some recent changes in policing.
