Police and Community in Twentieth-Century Scotland

Abstract

This book examines the relationships forged between police officers and the diverse urban and rural communities in which they lived and worked in Scotland across the twentieth century. It considers the formal structures and rhetoric that defined and prescribed the policing ideal, as well as the ways in which policing was experienced from a range of grassroots’ perspectives. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, oral history interviews, and memoirs, as well as previously unused primary sources, the authors identify factors that led to co-operation, consensus and the building of trust as well as tension and conflict across a century of social, political and technological change. The book compares the practices, cultures and repertoires of policing in urban and rural areas, highlighting the ways in which gender (as embodied and performed) shaped occupational identities, as well as race, ethnicity and religion.