Victorian Policing

A cultural history of local law enforcement in Victorian England, from street patrolling and crime detection to corruption among the ranks.

Historian Gaynor Haliday became fascinated with the life of early police forces while researching her own great-great-grandfather; a well-regarded Victorian police constable in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford. Although a citation claimed his style of policing was merely to cuff the offender round the ear and send him home, press reports of the time...