Exporting British Policing is a comprehensive study of British military policing in liberated Europe during the Second World War. Preventing and detecting thefts, receiving and profiteering together with the maintenance of order in its broadest sense are, in the peacetime world, generally confided to the police. However, the Second World War witnessed the use of civilian police to create a detective division of the British Army's Military Police (SIB), and the use of British civilian police, alongside American police, as Civil Affairs Officers to restore order and civil administration. Part One follows the men of the SIB from their pre-war careers to confrontations with mafiosi and their investigations into widespread organised crime and war crimes during which they were constantly hampered by being seen as a Cinderella service commanded by 'temporary gentlemen'. Part Two focuses on the police officers who served in Civil Affairs who tended to come from higher ranks in the civilian police than those who served in SIB. During the war they occupied towns with the assault troops, and then sought to reorganise local administration; at the end of the war in the British Zones of Germany and Austria they sought to turn both new Schutzmänner and police veterans of the Third Reich into British Bobbies. Using memoirs and anecdotes, Emsley critically draws on the subjective experiences of these police personnel, assessing the successes of these wartime efforts for preventing and investigating crimes such as theft and profiteering and highlighting the importance of historical precedent, given current difficulties faced by international policing organizations in enforcing democratic police reform in post-conflict societies.

Exporting British Policing is a comprehensive study of British military policing in liberated Europe during the Second World War. Preventing and detecting thefts, receiving and profiteering together with the maintenance of order in its broadest sense are, in the peacetime world, generally confided to the police. However, the Second World War witnessed the use of civilian police to create a detective division of the British Army's Military Police (SIB), and the use of British civilian police, alongside American police, as Civil Affairs Officers to restore order and civil administration. Part One follows the men of the SIB from their pre-war careers to confrontations with mafiosi and their investigations into widespread organised crime and war crimes during which they were constantly hampered by being seen as a Cinderella service commanded by 'temporary gentlemen'. Part Two focuses on the police officers who served in Civil Affairs who tended to come from higher ranks in the civilian police than those who served in SIB. During the war they occupied towns with the assault troops, and then sought to reorganise local administration; at the end of the war in the British Zones of Germany and Austria they sought to turn both new Schutzmänner and police veterans of the Third Reich into British Bobbies. Using memoirs and anecdotes, Emsley critically draws on the subjective experiences of these police personnel, assessing the successes of these wartime efforts for preventing and investigating crimes such as theft and profiteering and highlighting the importance of historical precedent, given current difficulties faced by international policing organizations in enforcing democratic police reform in post-conflict societies.

The police are constantly under scrutiny. They are criticized for failings, praised for successes, and hailed as heroes for their sacrifices. Starting from the premise that every society has norms and ways of dealing with transgressors, A Short History of Police and Policing traces the evolution of the multiple forms of 'policing' that existed in the past. It examines the historical development of the various bodies, individuals, and officials who carried these out in different societies, in Europe and European colonies, but also with reference to countries such as ancient Egypt, China, and the USA. By demonstrating that policing was never the exclusive dominion of the police, and that the institution of the police, as we know it today, is a relatively recent creation, Professor Emsley explores the idea and reality of policing, and shows how an institution we now call 'the police' came to be virtually universal in our modern world.

This book focuses on the impact of World War II on policing in Belgium, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The police are constantly under scrutiny. They are criticized for failings, praised for successes, and hailed as heroes for their sacrifices. Starting from the premise that every society has norms and ways of dealing with transgressors, A Short History of Police and Policing traces the evolution of the multiple forms of 'policing' that existed in the past. It examines the historical development of the various bodies, individuals, and officials who carried these out in different societies, in Europe and European colonies, but also with reference to countries such as ancient Egypt, China, and the USA. By demonstrating that policing was never the exclusive dominion of the police, and that the institution of the police, as we know it today, is a relatively recent creation, Professor Emsley explores the idea and reality of policing, and shows how an institution we now call 'the police' came to be virtually universal in our modern world.

This book offers a global history of civilian, military and gendarmerie-style policing around the First World War. Whilst many aspects of the Great War have been revisited in light of the centenary, and in spite of the recent growth of modern policing history, the role and fate of police forces in the conflict has been largely forgotten. Yet the war affected all European and extra-European police forces. Despite their diversity, all were confronted with transnational factors and forms of disorder, and suffered generally from mass-conscription. During the conflict, societies and states were faced with a crisis situation of unprecedented magnitude with mass mechanised killing on the battle field, and starvation, occupation, destruction, and in some cases even revolution, on the home front. Based on a wide geographical and chronological scope – from the late nineteenth century to the interwar years – this collection of essays explores the policing of European belligerent countries, alongside their empires, and neutral countries. The book’s approach crosses traditional boundaries between neutral and belligerent nations, centres and peripheries, and frontline and rear areas. It focuses on the involvement and wartime transformations of these law-enforcement forces, thus highlighting underlying changes in police organisation, identity and practices across this period.

This book discusses the impact of war on the complex interactions between various actors involved in justice: individuals and social groups on the one hand and ‘the justice system’ (police, judiciary and professionals working in the prison service) on the other. It also highlights the emergence of new expectations of justice among these actors as a result of war. Furthermore, the book addresses justice practices, strategies for coping with the changing circumstances, new forms of negotiation, interactions, relationships between populations and the formal justice system in this specific context, and the long-term effects of this renegotiation. Ten out of the eleven chapters focus on Belgian issues, covering the two world wars in equal measure. Belgium’s diverse war experiences in the twentieth century mean that a study of the country provides fascinating insights into the impact of war on the dynamics of ‘doing justice’. The Belgian army fought in both world wars, and the vast majority of the population experienced military occupation. The latter led to various forms of collaboration with the enemy, which required the newly reinstalled Belgian government to implement large-scale judicial processes to repress these ‘antipatriotic’ behaviours, in order to restore both its authority and legitimacy and to re-establish social peace.