This book traces the history of the British Transport Police, the National Police Force responsible for policing the railways of England, Scotland and Wales. The roots of the Force go back almost 200 years, starting with the development of the railways during the Nineteenth Century. Hundreds of railway companies were founded and although mergers and amalgamations took place, by the end of the century, well over 100 railway companies were operating, most of which employed railway policemen. The first railway policemen were recruited to work on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1826. Other railway companies quickly followed and by the 1850s, railway policemen with their smart uniforms and top hats were a common sight on Britain’s railways. During the Twentieth Century, railway companies continued to merge before being nationalized in 1948. The following year, the British Transport Commission (BTC) was created to oversee not only the newly nationalized railway network, but also the nation’s docks, shipping, inland waterways, road transport, road haulage and other companies. Also in 1949, the British Transport Commission Police (BTC Police) was created to take over the policing of these newly nationalized institutions. All the former railway, dock and canal police forces were then absorbed into the new BTC Police Force. The BTC was abolished in 1962, having incurred serious financial losses. The BTC Police was renamed the British Transport Police in 1963 and has continued to operate ever since. It no longer polices the docks, harbors and canals for reasons outlined in this book.

One of the fastest-growing and most exciting areas of historical research in recent years has been the study of crime and the criminal. The intrinsic fascination of the subject is enhanced by the fact that between the mid eighteenth century and early twentieth century, the English criminal justice system was fundamentally transformed as a new disciplinary state emerged. Drawing on recent research, this book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of these important changes.

The vast majority of Britain’s railways were built between 1830 and 1900 which happened to coincide with the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). By the turn of the Nineteenth/Twentieth Century, over one hundred different railway companies were operating in Britain on more than 22,000 miles of railway track. Although these new railways brought prosperity to the nation and enabled goods and passengers to be speedily transported the length and breadth of the country for the first time, this remarkable feat of engineering brought with it some unwelcome side-effects, one of which was crime. Wherever crowds of people gather, or unattended goods are being transported, a few unscrupulous individuals and career criminals will usually emerge to ply their trade. Some railway staff members are also unable to resist the temptation of stealing money or goods passing through their hands. This book gives an insight into the nature and types of crime committed on the railways during the Victorian era, incorporating such offenses as theft, assaults and murder, fraud, obstructing the railways and various other infringements of the law. Over seventy different cases mentioned in the book are true accounts of events which took place on the railway during the Victorian era, the details of which were obtained as a result of hours of researching British Newspaper Archives of that period. The author hopes that readers will get as much pleasure from analyzing the various cases cited in the book, as he himself derived from researching and writing about them.

The first edition (1989) is cited in ARBA 1990 and the Supplement to Sheehy . A reference that contains signed, alphabetical entries which examine all major aspects of American policing and police science, including history, current practices, new initiatives, social pressures, and political factors. The second edition considerable expands its scope with 70 new entries and revisions and updates of others. In this edition, greater emphasis is placed on the coverage of drug-abuse suppression, new types of crime, federal mandates for action, and international developments that affect American police. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, OR.

While the history of the uniformed police has prompted considerable research, the historical study of police detectives has been largely neglected; confined for the most part to a chapter or a brief mention in books dealing with the development of the police in general. The collection redresses this imbalance. Investigating themes central to the history of detection, such as the inchoate distinction between criminals and detectives, the professionalisation of detective work and the establishment of colonial police forces, the book provides a the first detailed examination of detectives as an occupational group, with a distinct occupational culture. Essays discuss the complex relationship between official and private law enforcers and examine the ways in which the FBI in the U.S.A. and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany operated as instruments of state power. The dynamic interaction between the fictional and the real life image of the detective is also explored. Expanding on themes and approaches introduced in recent academic research of police history, the comparative studies included in this collection provide new insights into the development of both plain-clothes policing and law enforcement in general, illuminating the historical importance of bureaucratic and administrative changes that occurred within the state system.

The second edition of Private Policing details the substantial involvement of private agents and organisations involved in policing beyond the public police. It develops a taxonomy of policing and explores in depth each of the main categories, examining the degree of privateness, amongst several other issues. The main categories include the public police; hybrid policing such as state policing bodies, specialised police forces and non-governmental organisations; voluntary policing; and the private security industry. This book explores how the public police and many other state bodies have significant degrees of privateness, from outright privatisation through to the serving of private interests. The book provides a theoretical framework for private policing, building upon the growing base of scholarship in this area. Fully revised, this new edition not only brings the old edition up to date with the substantial scholarship since 2002, but also provides more international context and several new chapters on: corporate security management, security officers, and private investigation. There is also a consideration of what the book calls the ‘new private security industry’ working largely in cyber-space. Bringing together research from a wide range of projects the author has been involved with, along with the growing body of private policing scholarship, the book shows the substantial involvement of non-public police bodies in policing and highlights a wide range of issues for debate and further research. Private Policing is ideal reading for students of policing and security courses, academics with an interest in private policing and security, and practitioners from security and policing.

The period 1829-1856 witnessed the introduction of the 'New Police' to Great Britain and Ireland. Via a series of key legislative acts, traditional mechanisms of policing were abolished and new, supposedly more efficient, forces were raised in their stead. Subsequently, the introduction of the 'New Police' has been represented as a watershed in the development of the systems of policing we know today. But just how sweeping were the changes made to the maintenance of law and order during the nineteenth century? The articles collected in this volume (written by some of the foremost criminal justice historians) show a process which, while cumulatively dramatic, was also at times protracted and acrimonious. There were significant changes to the way in which Britain and Ireland were policed during the nineteenth century, but these changes were by no means as straightforward or as progressive as they have at times been represented.