On the Mersey Beat : policing Liverpool between the wars

Bibliographic Information

On the Mersey Beat : policing Liverpool between the wars

Mike Brodgen

Oxford University Press, 1991

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Note

Includes bibliography (p. [179]-182) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is a different kind of police history. It tells the story from below - from the perspective of the rank and file copper trapped between the dictates of their superiors and a distrustful public. In this study, the author argues that the police were less concerned with crime than with keeping the streets clear of youths, traders, conmen, malingerers, or anyone else whose presence and demeanour challenged the moral mandate of policing. He also contends that recent calls for a return to community policing are based on a historical myth, as law enforcement in Britain has always been a case of "policing strangers by strangers". The book also examines the tedium of the beat, the pettiness of CID work, and the effects of policework on family life, while individuals recall their encounters with bookies, prostitutes, ethnic minorities, and industrial workers. The work should interest students and scholars of criminology, sociology, history and police studies, as well as general readers interested in crime and policing, social history and urban life.

Table of Contents

  • Strangers policing strangers
  • the nightly round - updo, downdo
  • discipline - more sticks than carrots
  • controlling the street
  • regulating the lower classes
  • troubles - domestics, injuries, race and politics. Appendix: methodology.

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