Leading the Police ― Chief Constables and Their Autonomy 1835-2016

Questions regarding leadership represent some of the key issues facing the police today, but there has been very little academic study of the history of police leadership and its development. This book brings together a diverse range of scholars to consider the role of Chief Constables from 1835 to the present day, the factors affecting their leadership, management and ideology and how these impacted upon the organization and operation of their forces.

This book compares and analyse the shifts and continuities in leadership styles, practice and performance in the police over the past 180 years of law enforcement. It assesses how much influence Chief Constables craved and in fact had over their force, how well they related to their respective communities and local authorities, how they were represented in both news media and popular fiction, and what shared experiences and differences police leaders have faced across Britain and Ireland. This book will be of interest to criminologists, historians and legal scholars alike, interested in the nature and development of police leadership, management, governance and culture.

Kim Stevenson is Professor of Socio-Legal History at Plymouth University, co-founder SOLON: Interdisciplinary Studies in Law, Crime and History, General Editor RoutledgeSOLON: Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice Histories and is also a former Police Sergeant She has published widely on historical and contemporary aspects of crime and the criminal law including Public Indecency in England 1857-1960 [with D.J. Cox, C. Harris and J. Rowbotham] (Routledge, 2015); Crime News in Modern Britain: Press Reporting and Responsibility 1820-2010 [with J. Rowbotham and S. Pegg] (Palgrave, 2013).

David J. Cox FRHistS is Reader in Criminal Justice History at the University of Wolverhampton, co-director SOLON: Interdisciplinary Studies in Law, Crime and History and General Editor RoutledgeSOLON: Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice Histories. He has published widely in the field of criminal justice history and the early history of the police: Crime, Regulation and Control during the Blitz: Protecting the Population of Bombed Cities [with P. Adey and B. Godfrey] (Bloomsbury, 2016); Public Indecency in England 1857-1960 [with K. Stevenson, C. Harris and J. Rowbotham] (Routledge, 2015); Victorian Convicts: 100 Criminal Lives [with B. Godfrey and H. Johnston] (Pen and Sword, 2016); and Crime in England, 1688-1815 History of Crime in the UK and Ireland series (Routledge, 2014).

Iain Channing is a lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies at Plymouth University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research crosses the fields of Criminology, History and Law. His publications include the monograph The Police and the Expansion of Public Order Law in Britain, 1829-2014 (Routledge, 2015) which underlines his interests in police history, public order law and political extremism. These interests were established in his doctoral research on the legal responses to Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (Plymouth University, 2014). He has presented his research at various conferences across the UK and teaches across a broad range of areas which traverse crime history, contemporary policing and the criminal justice system.