The Force

The author offers the reader a factual account on the difficulties of being a member of the police. The book is set not in the exotic lushness of Miami, but in the mixed London disctrict of Streatham and is based on extensive first-hand research with the co-operation of the Metropolitan Police. Chapter by chapter, clearly and concisely, the author examines certain basic yet crucial questions, such as: how do we see the police, and how do they see us? What happens to new recruits, and why do they wish to join the force? How will the police cope with the increasing problem of "no go" inner city areas? Why does there continue to be a certain aura of glamour surrounding the CID, and is this justified? The book also includes some of the more personal issues at stake, for example the clash between loyalty to one's colleagues and loyalty to the public, and the effect which a policeman's anti-social hours may have on his own family. At present, society is at best ambiguous in its feelings towards the British police, whilst they in turn often respond by seeming hostile and remote. The police often symbolize the nature of he regime which they serve.
The fact that the British police is in a state of the society which we live in today. We cannot be without a police force. Robert Chesshyre also wrote "The Return for a Native Reporter".