Thread by @WMPHistory

A fantastic (and sometimes rambling) address of the Liverpool Head Constable in 1852 (revised 1879). There is more but these are my favourite bits - most still relevant today:
'As I am about to speak to you at great length I wish you to stand in as easy a position as possible...

changing your position as often as you choose; and in return for the pain I take (not trouble, for I dislike that word) I want you to lend me your eyes and your ears, and give me your best attention… In addressing you I will use very simple words, earnestly telling you what you

may expect from me, and what I expect from you.’

‘Not one of you has entered the Force by any letter from any rich Merchant, Magistrate, or Town Councillor, or from any friend of my own. You have been selected from my own opinion as to your health, strength, intelligence and

respectability… of two men, however, now before me, one may rise rapidly to a superior rank, because of good superior ability and superior conduct, while another must serve the usual time…

‘The Watch Committee allow you very excellent uniform, and a Constable who does not take the trouble to keep it and himself clean is a discredit to the Force. It is very simple and becoming; it is easily kept bright and clean, with its belt-plate, buttons and helmet…

‘I am very glad when my men are rewarded, it shows you have rendered someone a service… The English are very generous people & quick to reward… rewards are entered into the Conduct book & weigh much in promotion. In this book is also entered any punishment incurred.

I will not blot that book for a trifling fault…

‘Those of you who live in a Section House have many comforts and conveniences: mess-room, smoking-room, reading-room, etc; books and papers, hot meals for dinner every day; and on the very lowest rate of pay you can each save

somewhere about 12s a week… If you marry (and I hope you all will, if she is a good washer and can mend and darn) it is a nice thing to have plenty to begin house with. It is a good thing to save 12s a week, for you will be able to send to the “old folkd at home” a guinea at

Christmas, and I wouldn’t wait until Christmas; do it every now and then – they were kind to you “all the year round”.

‘You are not sent naked into the streets: for the first three or four weeks you are of no use to me: but that is not your fault. You cannot perform you cannot

perform your duty until instructed. You are formed into a Probationary Class and taken to the Police Court where you will see the Constables in the position that you will be in bye and bye. Observe how differently one Constable gives his evidence from another. One speaks low and

thick, tells a long story, which is so rambling that when he has finished you hardly know what he has been talking about. Another stands erect, fills his chest, speaks distinctly, with voice sharp and clear, telling his case in a very few words, and when he has done you know all

he heard, all he saw and all that happened. When you come out of Court, ask yourself the one question, “Have I learned anything?” Great pains are taken to instruct you whilst in the Probationary Class, and you will be sent out from six to nine in the evening, along with an

intelligent Constable, to whom you must put all manner of questions, turning your thoughts into the groove of your new duties. Ask what kind of people live in this or that neighbourhood; what big building that is, where are the nearest railway stations, etc, and especially where

the nearest fire station is. In order to make you acquainted with the whole town, you will be in one neighbourhood today, in another tomorrow. Last of all, ask yourself the question, Do I know the name of the very street in which I have been walking for the last three hours, or

the name of that church “whose lofty spire points to heaven?” If you thus make your duties the subject of your conversation and thoughts, you will get to be intelligent, and intelligence with good conduct leads to promotion…

While in this class, an opportunity will be taken of teaching you drill. Drill opens out the chest, the great seat of life; drill will make you a healthier and, what may be of consequence to some of you, a handsomer man…

‘Kite-flying in the streets is a very dangerous practice; and if the string breaks and the kite flaps in the face of a horse, it will frighten it; the horse may injure himself, kill his rider, and, seeing how crowded the crossings of our public thoroughfare are, cause great

danger to many. The kite is almost always in the hands of a very little boy or girl, probably bought with a penny given by a next-door neighbour. To bring such a little creature before the magistrates would never do, although it is an offence against the bye-laws.

To put a stop to flying kites, one constable, of rough disposition, snatches the kite, snaps it in two, at which every person passing by will say something like “What a horrid fellow that is; the police are not at all a good sort of men.”

Another constable, seeing the same thing, will call out in a pleasant voice, “My little lad (or lass), go to the fields and fly your kite there, it may cost a man his life flying it in the street”, thus showing the public that, whilst the constable has his duty to do, he has

some regard for what people will think of him. The opinion of the public is often formed by the single act of a single individual, whether rough or smooth…

‘I give no lessons as to the use of the baton, except that the human skull in some persons is as thin as a worn-out sixpence…

‘If you don’t like the police duty, don’t quarrel with me. A new coat, a new shoe, does not fit well at first, neither will your new duties. Give them a fair trial, and if they do not suit you, leave the Force with the same good character you brought into it.’