Blue-Collar Job, Blue-Collar Career: Policemen’s Perplexing Struggle for a Voice in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, 1900-1919

Abstract

This articles explores how English borough policemen during the early 1900s grappled with how to organize effectively to improve their conditions of service without violating their oaths of office. Policemen faced an increasing load of duties and responsibilities yet suffered from eroding pay scales and lack of recognition. Local watch committee and police forces did not provide policemen with a mechanism for voicing their grievances beyond submitting petitions which were frequently ignored. Frustrated with their lack of progress, policemen searched for ways to make their voices heard. Initially, the obvious choice of a police union was resisted since most men found the possibility of a police strike incompatible with their duties to uphold law and order. However, the pressures of the First World War combined with continued silence from watch committees regarding their grievances finally precipitated the organization of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers (NUPPO) and the calling of police strikes in 1918 and 1919. The parliamentary committee investigating this embarrassing situation traced the roots of the problem to the refusal of police authorities to listen to their own men. National legislation resolved many grievances regarding pay, status and promotions. But the need for policemen to have a voice was less easily resolved. The new Police Federation gave policemen a forum but was viewed with suspicion by the men as an official creation and it could still be ignored by police authorities. A dangerous lack of communication and potential for explosion remained.