Reiner’s (2000) Politics of the Police has been a hugely influential book exploring perspectives on the development of policing, analysing the myths and realities associated with the ‘golden age’ of policing in Britain in the post-war period, and the politics of law and order. Part One of the book provides an account of the foundation and development of the police service. Reiner argues that legitimacy was established because the service operated bureaucratically, according to the rule of law, with a strategy of minimal force and non-partisanship, with account­ability, performed a service role, sought to prevent crime problems, and was relatively effective. He also argues that the ‘golden age’ that was achieved in the post-Second World War period was partly related to the broader context of the welfare state and consensus politics.

Rawlings’ (2002) Policing – a Short History outlines and analyses the history of the police service from the Anglo-Saxon period until the end of the twentieth century.

While examining the ways in which policing arrangements have developed in relation to wider patterns of social change, the book also makes clear that some contemporary concerns, for example about the criminalization of the poor and the role of private security firms, are very long-standing indeed.

The Metropolitan Police website contains useful resources relating to the develop­ment of the modern police service, including a timeline of key developments from 1829 to the present day,https://www.metpolicehistory.co.uk/met-police-family-history.html

An article by Chris Williams (‘Britain’s Police Forces: Forever Removed from Democratic Control?’) examines the tension between the principles of local control and the direction of the police service by central government. Williams argues that contemporary debates about central and local direction, considered at greater length in Chapter 4, can be traced back to the nineteenth century. His article is available at the History and Policy website,http://www.historyandpolicy. org/archive/policy-paper-16.html.

The contested and controversial development of policing in England is explored in Storch’s account of the mid-nineteenth-century experience: Storch, R. (1975) ‘The Plague of Blue Locusts: Police Reform and Popular Resistance in Northern England 1840-57’, International Review of Social History, 20: 61–90.

An analysis of the social background of police recruits in the first century or so of modern policing is provided in Emsley and Clapson’s article: Emsley, C. and Clapson, R. (1994) ‘Recruiting the English Policeman c. 1840–1940’, in Policing and Society, 3: 269–85

Brogden explored the influence of colonial policing on the domestic development of policing in England, suggesting that transnational and global influences are not solely of recent significance: Brogden, M. (1987) ‘The Emergence of the Police:

 Myths and popular cultural representations of policing in the ‘golden age’ of the 1950s abound, and McLaughlin critically examines the creation of the iconic Dixon of Dock Green: McLaughlin, E. (2005) ‘From Reel to Ideal: The Blue Lamp and the Popular Cultural Construction of the English Bobby’, Crime, Media, Culture, 1(1): 11–30.