This chapter deals in the main with the topics which were at the heart of the tasks set out by Commissioner Rowan: functions; effectiveness; discretion; behavior toward the public. It also includes two topics which Rowan did not mention; the police as people, including training, stress, and misbehavior, and the place of interrogation and confessions in police work.

History

Three major police strategies, watching, walling and walking, all concerning with crime prevention, have persisted from pre-industrial times to the present day (Sherman 1983). Watching involves the surveillance of potential targets, often by volunteers; its current incarnation is Neighborhood Watch (see below). Walling, now termed “target hardening,” means making the target more difficult to get at, by strengthening defences of all kinds. It is discussed in detail in Chapter 12. Walking, which today may mean patrolling in a police car, uses by far the most public finance and an increasing share of private resources, and is the most intrusive on civil liberties.