Abstract
It is difficult to avoid romanticizing about police work. The thrill of the chase as described above is quite compelling. Anyone who has spent any time enjoying the intimacy of police officers will have heard such stories and many more dramatic, though probably apocryphal, tales of ‘real police work’ involving ruthless criminals, overwhelming odds, life and death emergencies, brilliant detective work and the eventual triumph of law and order. Of course, such tales are usually the stuff of fiction and one does not have to watch television for very long to be presented with a police drama which will reaffirm this image of the police as ‘avenging blue angels’ (Alderson, 1979).
‘I was called to the King’s Arms (a public house). Chummy (the offender) ran out through the back door when I came in. He really legged it! I goes after him down the alley and into the street. He’s going like the clappers. Suddenly I sees a taxi coming up. I flag it down and jumps in. Three hundred yards further on round the corner Chummy is still legging it. He sees the taxi, flags it down and—cool as a cucumber—gives his address and climbs in next to me. Oh ... it was neat that arrest!’
Police Officer answering a question on ‘What is real police work?’
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Cumberbatch, W.G., Morgan, J.B. (1983). The Police Officer: Myths and Realities. In: Singleton, W.T. (eds) Social Skills. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7819-8_10
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