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'Historical Perspectives: Policing and Technological Change'.
Overview of talk• What we know
• Some theory
• New police
• Rules and books
• Telecoms
• Control Rooms
• Computers
What we know already*• Origins of new police
• Who the police were
• History of institutional structures
• Who was in charge
*pretty much
Some theory and inspiration• Max Weber – bureaucracy
• Michel Foucault – disciplinary society
• JoAnn Yates Control Through Communication: The rise of system in American management (1989)
• Jon Agar The Government Machine: A revolutionary history of the computer (2002)
• John James The Paladins: The story of the RAF up to the outbreak of World War II (1990)
Old to new policing• C. 1775 -> 1850
• Not ‘professionalisation’ but ‘proletarianisation’.
• (‘old’) Parish Constables
– independent, controlled by warning and incentives
• New Police
–Uniformed
–Under orders
• Effects on public: arrival of a disciplined force
Foucault was right*
*about this
Rules and books• Interlocking cross-referenced books
• Regular reports over whole hierarchy
• Notebook as a focus for controlling the constable
• Filters: forms are internal - books are gatekeepers
“Integrity, sobriety, intelligence, a systematic correctness in business, civility and humanity, are the leading qualifications of a good Police Officer”
The Orders and Instructions to be observed by the officers of the Manchester Police (1836)
Landlines, 1848-1934• ‘Leading sector’ – 1848 Chartist mobilisation
• Telegraph: written record
• Telephones
–High-level conferences
–Inter-institutional traffic
– ‘Showing the flag’
–Box systems: supervision
–1934 survey: national traffic ‘net work’
Control rooms• Military heritage: London Air Defence Area 1917
• ‘Police science’
• Area wireless
• 1934: Whitehall 1212
• Information Room
• Effects on public
–Fast response
–HMIC report 1938: “[shifting] the original basis of our police organisation more in the direction of that of a fire brigade”
Police National Computer• 1958-1975: Home Office / Metropolitan Police Joint
Automatic Data Processing Unit
• Centralisation of information in real time
• London location
• US equipment purchased
• Includes: Criminal Name index
• Includes: Car registration numbers
• Excludes: Modus Operandi
Broad conclusions• National security drives some
interventions
• Limited role of private sector: no ‘security industrial complex’
• Filters the key to useful information systems
–Alarms info overload Met 1970: 17k calls, 96% false, 0.5% -> arrest
• Technology frees police from community engagement?
