Governance

This chapter analyses the formal rhetoric, mechanisms and structures of governance through which policing was organised in Scotland. It examines shifts in the tripartite relationship between the UK Home Office, the Scottish Office and local police authorities, highlighting the tensions between centrism and localism across the twentieth century, as well as the intersecting identities associated with British, Scottish and burgh/county policing. It also outlines modes of discipline through which police officers were themselves regulated: from training manuals and physical drill (which aimed to mould an idealised model of masculinity) through to the internal handling of complaints about officers’ conduct. Examining a small number of flashpoints relating to the official scrutiny of Scottish policing, the authors suggest that the narrative of more ‘benign’ relationship between police and community in Scotland conceals a more complex and chequered picture.

Women in Scottish Policing

This chapter examines the gradual appointment of female police officers in Scotland from 1915 onwards, the political and social context that shaped these initiatives and the work of women as volunteer patrols and auxiliaries. The chapter highlights the gendered construction of women’s police work in the interwar period, as well as the development of expertise in rape and sexual abuse cases. The authors consider the persistence of the marriage bar in Scotland until 1968 (two decades after its removal in England and Wales), as well as the effects of the closure of Policewomen’s Departments with ‘integration’ in the 1970s. Ideas about gender difference remained crucial in the construction of police identities into the late-twentieth century. Until the bedding in of equal opportunities strategies in the 1990s, the authority associated with policing was assumed to be derived from physical strength and, concomitantly, the male body.

The Glasgow Beat Man

This chapter focuses specifically on the role of the Glasgow ‘beat man’ as well as the group identity and reputation that was forged in the city for ‘robust and ‘tough’ policing, grounded in male physical prowess (as embodied masculinity). It was constructed through the culture of the muster hall, inscribed into everyday life through the performance of policing on the beat, and was recognised by working-class communities (through resistance as much as acquiescence or deference). For those seen as ‘law-abiding’, the work of the police officer incorporated assistance, support and a significant social service role, with chivalric paternalism in evidence in relation to the aged and infirm. A different repertoire was deployed in relation to those viewed as anti-social, where ‘toughness’ spilled over into the routine use of physical force in the first half of the century, justified by the police themselves as necessary to maintain authority. The legal tool of ‘breach of the peace’ was a flexible device across the period to counteract the limitations assumed to arise from the rule of corroboration.

Specialist and Plainclothes Policing

Policing in Glasgow was segmented into discrete roles, linked to the proliferation of specialisms across the twentieth century. This chapter analyses the effects of encounters generated by some of these specialist units (particularly those associated with plainclothes rather than work in uniform) on relationships between police and communities. After discussing the tactics associated with the use of plainclothes by detective officers, it examines the work of the Licensing Department (or ‘vice squad’) in relation to street betting, the sex industry, and the criminalisation of homosexuality. The chapter then analyses experiments with specialist units and programmes associated with the policing of young people, demonstrating the variegated effects of plain-clothes roles on police-community relations.

Concluding the Twentieth Century

This chapter draws together the book’s main arguments and links them to key events and trends of its last two decades. It returns to central questions regarding who is entitled to be a police officer, whose interests and needs are met through policing, and how policing is delivered.

Policing the Rural

This chapter focuses on the role of the ‘village constable’ in the Highland and Islands of Scotland. It identifies an approach to policing that was mostly diffusive and conciliatory in terms of the settled population. This was facilitated by the rural officer’s role as a generalist, geographically embedded within the village as primary point of contact. More ‘robust’ tactics were used in relation to male migrant labour although officers also acted as mediators between the settled population and those constructed as ‘outsiders’ (including members of Gypsy/Traveller communities). The authors show that the high levels of autonomy accorded the rural constable led in some cases to high levels of trust, but also had potential to expose significant weakness.

Introduction

This chapter outlines the guiding aims and concepts of the book, locating them in relation to existing historiography and the chronological landscape of the twentieth century. It sets out the methods and sources used, and explains the structure of the book.