Bittner’s (1974) article ‘Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willy Sutton …’ is an early account of the complexities and contradictions inherent in the police function that provides a compelling argument against a narrow ‘law-enforcement’ definition of the role of the police.

The first chapter of Waddington’s (1999) Policing Citizens contains a useful discussion of the question that has framed this chapter: ‘What is policing?’Waddington explores the force–service dichotomy and similarities and specificities of police work across the world.

Chapters 3 and 4 of McLaughlin’s (2007a) The New Policing provide an excellent account of the development of ‘police studies’, focusing on traditional perspectives (including that of Bittner) that emerged in the USA in the 1960s and somewhat later in the UK, and ‘new perspectives’ that consider the changing terrain of polic­ing in post-modern, post-industrial global society.

A good starting point for general information on the roles, responsibilities and development of the police in Scotland is available from the homepage of the Scottish Executive, at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Police. Similar information relating to England and Wales can be found at the Home Office website, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/police/, and at the Northern Ireland Policing Board at http://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/.

The full text of Sir Ian Blair’s Dimbleby lecture What Kind of Police Service Do We Want? can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4443386.stm.

 The Independent Police Commission reviewed a broad range of aspects of contem­porary policing, including the mandate and tasks of police in their historical context. Information about the Commission and links to related publications can be found at http://independentpolicecommission.org.uk/.

Brodeur’s article identified an important distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ policing: the former being that associated with the development and protection of nation states and the latter with law enforcement, crime investigation and public safety: Brodeur, J.P. (1983) ‘High and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities’, Social Problems, 3: 507–20.

Loader outlined the social, political and cultural significance of policing and emphasised the importance of understanding the broader dimensions of police work: Loader, I. (1997) ‘Policing and the Social: Questions of Symbolic Power’, British Journal of Sociology, 48(1): 1–18.

In an article that considers the impact of financial austerity on British policing, Millie reviewed the distinction between narrow and broad approaches to the police mandate and argued that there might be advantages to a relatively narrow definition: Millie, A. (2013) ‘The Policing Task and the Expansion (and Contraction) of British Policing’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 13: 143–60.

Zedner considered claims that policing is entering a new era in the context of the historical development of the service, and suggested that emerging patterns have longer precedents than is often recognised: Zedner, L. (2006) ‘Policing Before and After the Police – the Historical Antecedents of Contemporary Crime Control’, British Journal of Criminology, 46: 78–96