Martin Smith, Strategy and Research Lead and Dr Jennifer Galbraith, Research Advisor at the Authority:

"Understanding and measuring the public’s level of trust and confidence in policing has become a cornerstone of the Scottish Police Authority’s work over recent years."

This is ultimately because effective policing relies on both the police and the public co-operating with one another, a concept which is sometimes described as ‘policing by consent’. It is this concept of ‘policing by consent’, with its foundations built on public trust and confidence, which gives policing its legitimacy. It is also by no means a new concept – its origins can be traced back to the inception of modern policing in Britain and the development of what became to be known as a set of ‘Peelian Principles’.

Whilst the following article will get into the past and policing, it’s worth starting by touching on recent developments at the Authority in relation to understanding public perceptions of policing.

In 2020 the Authority began to use an independent supplier – the Diffley Partnership - to carry out regular public opinion survey research on policing in Scotland. The focus for the first two years of polling work was on how the public perceived policing during the pandemic. In all, four rounds of polling took place over the course of 2020-21, and the various insights derived from the work helped the Authority to keep the policing response in Scotland under regular review, and at key times as the pandemic and accompanying legislation and guidance developed. The Authority also augmented its oversight of policing during the pandemic by co-ordinating an Independent Advisory Group, which was set up in 2020 to monitor the policing strategy and how it was being implemented, with a strong focus on human rights.

Following the pandemic period, the Authority decided in 2022 to retain its focus on public opinion around policing and made its polling approach more systematic. Polling then took place at six-monthly intervals, using core ‘repeated’ questions so that perceptions could be tracked over time. By the summer of 2025, based on the value of the insights gathered to date, the Authority chose to move from six-monthly intervals to a quarterly cycle. The first wave of this polling took place in August 2025 (see results here).

So how do we get back to the topic of policing history?

Well, back in February 2025 we had a chance meeting with Dr Mary Fraser, a police historian at the School of Social and Political Sciences (University of Glasgow). The meeting took place on the margins of a James Smart Memorial Lecture, delivered by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. The event was busy and our discussion with Mary was all too brief, however we caught up with Mary in slower time over the summer. We wanted to find out more about her research interests, more about some intriguing aspects of police history in Scotland (which we suspect is not widely known), and we wanted to look at these past events through a contemporary lens.

Our discussion with Mary got us thinking about the wider role that the police – past and present - play in society. All too often when people think of policing, they think of how the police are here to patrol in an effort to deter criminality, solve crimes and catch criminals, or respond to public safety incidents and have a presence on occasions where there is potential for disorder.  And yes, whilst these activities do form part of the policing mission still, it is easy to overlook the role that the police play during times of national emergency and crisis, including during wartime and during pandemics. Even if we put aside national emergencies and crises and think about our own personal circumstances, we should not forget that the police is still the primary agency many of us would likely seek help from if we were to experience a personal emergency.

Without further ado, let's find out more about Dr Mary Fraser's research into policing history in Scotland:

Our 10 Questions for Dr Mary Fraser

Q1: What specific areas of police history have you focused on in your research?

My main aim is to show the history of police work and its significance at different times, particularly relating to today. To understand why police work was conducted in the way it was, it’s necessary to show the conditions in which it happens, so the underlying social, cultural and political context. My two main recent areas have been:

1. The role of the police in disaster management over time. This started by showing police release into agriculture in Spring 1917 to help to offset the threat of population starvation from enemy blockading. As around a third of policemen (they were all men) had agricultural backgrounds, they were able to be deployed immediately onto farms to help farmers plough and plant crops for an autumn harvest, under a six-week deadline.

This research shows how before a disaster strikes, the police work more closely with the target group until the disaster hits and then they move directly into the essential industry under fear of collapse to help to prop it up until the disaster eases, seen recently also in 2021 in the COVID-19 pandemic when the police were released as ambulance drivers when this essential service was also under fear of collapse.

The strategy shows the importance of the release of appropriately skilled and qualified police manpower so that they can hit the ground running and not contribute to any further social disorganisation. These strategies help to lessen the risk of public disturbance and are a form of population management.

2. The compassionate role of the police with people in distress. The police-aided schemes to clothe destitute children started in Edinburgh in 1892 and by 1909 had spread to around 28 towns and cities across the UK. At a time before the welfare state, poverty was rife: the police saw children running around the streets in the middle of winter with no shoes and ragged clothing and shivering with the cold. Clothing schemes raised money from many police activities, such as Christmas concerts and were managed by the local authority. They also received huge donations and legacies, so that in 1904 the income in Edinburgh was equivalent to £50,100 today and they clothed 923 children. The police strictly controlled who received clothing (only given to children of the deserving poor) so that they continued to receive the support of the middle and upper classes for this work, and disallowed these clothes to be pawned by parents, a regular activity by poverty-stricken families, by indelibly marking the clothes and alerting pawnbrokers, who had to be registered with the police. Schemes helped the police to know and access ghettoised working-class areas where they were often unwelcome and sometimes attacked. This relates to today as ways of accessing and understanding communities is a key aspect of police work.

Q2: What methodologies do you use in your research on police history?

My research projects usually start with the police weekly journal The Police Review and Parade Gossip, the most widely read journal for policemen on the beat at the time. It was also hugely influential politically. I then conduct a literature review of the social, cultural and political landscape of the time and subsequently follow up stories in local newspapers to assess how they are presented to a local audience. I follow up with searches of local archives. These searches are compared and contrasted to show the points of difference, along with the struggles and strategies used by the police to manage their local areas. Although it’s not possible to gain the same insight as by living at the time, these searches give one of the best insights into the lives and work of the police at the time, along with what they were trying to achieve.

Q3: What challenges have you faced in researching police history?

One of the main challenges is accessing material. With only a few full sets of The Police Review and Parade Gossip available and in far-flung areas of Britain, it’s been crucial to preserve this essential resource. So I’m delighted that The British Newspaper Archive is digitising this journal, starting with 1892-1917 which will be available soon. A further challenge in some areas is the lack of archival material, it is hoped the police will preserve their precious written, artefacts and other materials for the benefit of understanding their past and how it impacts today, and for future generations.

Q4: How do you think your research has impacted the understanding of police history?

I have brought to light areas of police work which were unknown, with comments from the many people from diverse backgrounds that I’ve engaged with such as ‘Well fancy that!’ and ‘Who knew!’. People I’ve spoken with have been genuinely interested and enthralled with these topics and I am pleased to tell them that these are ‘good news stories’ about the police at a time when the police are receiving so much criticism. The stories help the public to understand the wider good work of Britain’s police. The stories show not only how the police worked in the past, but also how this is relevant to today by recurring themes e.g. the release of police manpower into essential industries in fear of collapse due to a disaster; comparisons of what has changed over time gives insights into current challenges of establishing services e.g. mental health services for those involved in a disaster is a current imperative but an unknown need only around 100 years ago. When trying to explain why these historical stories are not known, I relate to my experience as a practitioner, where a focus on the next pressing priority is the driving force and institutional memory is often lost. This misses the recurrent themes and issues that history can tell us and why they matter, to inform present and future practice, education and policy making.

Q5: What areas of police history do you think require further research?

My emphasis focusses on the work of the police and how historical events link to today and what we can learn from this. It would be nice to think that in future a few officers could be involved in the excitement of developing and writing about police history. Although I will be working on issues I identify and that intrigue me, I would also like topics to be suggested by officers and, if possible, for us to work together on them. If this is attractive, I would like to work with The Scottish Police Authority to develop this.

Q6: How much awareness do you think the public have today about the history of policing in Scotland. There have been many changes in organisation and structural development over the years, although the role has essentially remained the same.

Very little, which is a real shame. The main awareness comes from TV crime series, which my work shows is far from the whole story of police work. The police museums do a great job, but mainly focus on the collection of artifacts, so that the social history of the time and why the police did what they did is understandably only seen as a curiosity, although the museums raise the profile of police history as an important topic.

Q7: How did the police in Scotland support the war effort (World War 1 and World War 2), aside from things like enforcing blackouts and curfews, or assisting with evacuation procedures? What about the supply of food?

Table 1 below shows the areas where police were released in Scotland into agriculture compared with England (none were found to be released in Wales).

Table 1. Locations of police release in March/April, 1917

Table 1 shows the many policemen released throughout Scotland, particularly in Berwick, Roxburgh and Selkirk where around 60% of the force was released full-time. Most were released into their own location, but both Edinburgh and Glasgow sent men to distant locations e.g. Edinburgh police to Aberdeen and Glasgow police to Perth and Ayrshire. They were mainly released for 6 weeks but their return dates are unknown. However, the number released for autumn harvest was more than double, at around 500. The police were obviously welcomed by farmers as able to immediately undertake the work, shown by letters of thanks published in newspapers and sent to the local authority, unlike soldiers who initially demonstrated few farming skills and angered farmers.

Britain’s focus on feeding the home population was said by Prime Minister Lloyd George as ‘the food question ultimately decided the issue of the war’. Unlike other combatant nations, e.g. Germany, Austria Hungary, Russia and France, where large food riots were said to occur with many casualties, Britain experienced minor skirmishes and demonstrations, but avoided major conflict. In this the police should take some credit.

I have not investigated World War 2, so cannot comment on this, although many of the lessons learned from WW1 were also implemented in WW2.

Q8: Were there specific moments during the wars when food supply issues were becoming critical? How did the police respond in Scotland and what skills and characteristics did police officers have that were valuable to the mission?

Food shortages in Germany began to be evident mid-1916 with reports of ‘20,000 in food riot. German farmers fight mob with pitchforks.’ However, critical food shortages in Britain didn’t occur until Spring 1917, with not only the German blockade which sank massive amounts of shipping bringing food supplies, but also the bad winter and government mismanagement resulted in a lack of potatoes, all grown in Britain, for many months, see below:

Not only could everyone see the alarming food shortages in the shops and markets and huge queues outside food shops started to form, but also daily reports of the shipping tonnage being sunk made grim and very worrying reading. When The President of the Board of Agriculture said in March there was only 6 weeks to plough and plant the land for an autumn harvest, see the advertisement below which appeared nationwide, it became clear Britain was in crisis:

The agricultural skills policemen possessed were critical to home food production. Although the personnel records were only searched in detail in Glasgow, the pattern of recruitment was similar throughout Britain, shown in Table 2 below:

Table 2. Previous agricultural experience, Glasgow City Police, February 1917. (Available from the Mitchell Library, Glasgow archives)

Therefore, policemen were not only able to hit the ground running when allocated to a farm, but were likely also to be able to control other farm workers, particularly farm labourers who were protesting at low pay, aggravated by being paid less than soldiers with few agricultural skills who they were expected to instruct. Any industrial unrest in farming was therefore minimised. So the police not only undertook the work, but also helped to ensure maximum food production at this critical time.

Q9: Reflecting on more recent times, we saw the police play a major role during the COVID-19 pandemic in helping to enforce public health regulations. Would you agree that this side to policing is often not always championed enough, this ability to jump in at times of crisis?

Absolutely! Because the history of police work in a crisis has become lost, the significance of the COVID-19 help given by the police is seen as less important. This is one of the benefits of history, to show recurring themes and their significance.

Q10: Around 80% of the Scottish land mass is rural and/or remote in nature, with difficult topography and with sparse populations. It would seem that in the event of future national crises, we can learn from history, particularly the role police played during the wars around food supply.

Absolutely! There are at least 2 examples worthy of note here: 1. The release of around 60% of the Berwick, Selkirk and Roxburgh police full-time into agriculture during WW1, which was well publicised nationally as an example of how a rural population could help farmers, and 2. The example of Montrose police who, along with local authority dignitaries and boys from a local refuge engaged the community in planting potatoes on disused land, which gave an excellent example to the whole community of police involvement to help local people in distress.

About Dr Mary Fraser 

Dr Fraser joined the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research as an Associate in 2018. She was previously senior lecturer in the Department of Government (now renamed Politics) at the University of Strathclyde from 1993-2007 teaching research methods to post-graduates and supervising their dissertations and theses. She has held public appointments in Scotland and England along with research grants and awards. With a background in practice in the NHS, she relates to the interests of practitioners and academics, particularly in the public services.

Her current research interests are in police management of the population, focusing on times of disaster with the recurrent themes of release of police manpower into other essential industries to prevent their collapse. She promotes the use of history in police practice and contributes widely to historical and social science research methods, particularly the use and analysis of newspapers and occupational journals. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2023 https://royalhistsoc.org/. She is a founder member of the academic group of the Police History Society and was recently elected as Vice Chair https://www.policehistorysociety.com/about-1.

Mary also featured in a University of Glasgow podcast which was published in March 2025.

Source: Dr Mary Fraser - SCCJR