h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

sorry about that, when they first started out on the heath they drove around in vans wiv 'city police' on the side however for a while now the vans have been marked 'constabulary'.

Well, yes, you mentioned expenses twice in the first two hundred years but left out the last fifty...
I wonder, if , for the general reader, a mention of one or two heroic or famous Specials might be in order. It would add a face or at least a name to the these, them, they.
You have it well in hand. I'll leave you to it.

If I find some heroic Specials to mention, I may do so. I'm sure, however, that if I mention that on the Specials' Forum, they'll all be shouting "Me! Me! Me" because they're _all_ heroes.

Okay. How 'bout some famous or historical person who was ONCE a Special?

The role of the Special is often underrated. A decade or so ago I worked in a civilian capacity for the Met Police, I remember one Saturday afternoon when I was working at 7 Area (NW London) HQ, a march in SE London unexpectedly turned into a riot & bods were sent from all over London to deal with it & that with the exception of a couple of Sergeants virtually all divisional level policing in 7 Area was being done by Specials.

And why not? Specials have a long history of being undervalued and underutilised. It looks like in the next few years either all that will go out of the window, or the entire service will collapse and there won't be any Specials at all.

I hope it's the former.

*nods*

Hi

I didn't know much at all about the Specials (apart from AKA!) before reading this article and I just wanted to say that I find out it very informative, well laid out and interesting.

One thing I might say, I found it interesting to hear about the pre-'police' Specials but as you moved forward in history, there was no mention of the creation of Peel's Metropolitan Police and the subsequent development of the Police.

I quite understand that the piece is *not* about the 'police' police. I just thought that you might mention the point in *our* story when the new police force came into existence. Partly in order to understand the changing relationship between the two. Just a thought.

Perhaps what's needed is a linked article on the history of the police. Fair bit of work involved there. Rather you than me!

For what it's worth, I think this piece is well written and informative and worthy of becoming an edited article.

Spiff

yeah, everything they said:

Also, when you talk about the various Acts which have been passed relating to Specials (particularly the 1964? whatever was the last one) is there a way you could add a little more info. It's a bit abrupt. More along the lines of 'the 19?? act which introduced the use of water pistols filled with holy water for use at late night riots' for the few where there is not a lot of info already.

But then, I'm just being picky, great article

FABT

I'm afraid that's the fault of my sources, so far I don't have as much detail as that to include, although if I find it I will include it.

I'm not planning on writing an Entry on the history of the police as a whole at this point, as it's far too much of a mammoth undertaking, and I want to do my next one on something Computer Sciencey. However, you're right, tying it in to the creation of the modern police force in its modern form would be useful, I'll poke around and see what I can dig up on it.

Thank you all for the encouraging comments!

Hi, MaW!

About the B-Specials of Northern Ireland: as I said in my earlier post, they were founded in 1920 and disbanded in 1970. I think they are an interesting example of how some of the usual strengths of Specials can become a weakness - people joined out of commitment to their community, but this was only one side (Loyalist) of a deeply divided community, and the B-Specials were widely hated in the other (Nationalist) community. The disbandment of the force was one of the first demands of the early Civil Rights movement at the beginning of the troubles in 1969, and the British government went along with this in 1970.

Azara

Ah, the usual problem with the police in Northern Ireland, then. They always seem to end up with a highly one-sided makeup, which of course causes resentment... it's a situation I certainly don't know how to solve.

Keep your fingers crossed!
There have certainly been huge efforts for change in the last couple of years.

I think that part of the problem with the old B-Specials was like what happened to some of the Italian carabinieri in those recent protests (Genoa, wasn't it?) - heavily armed forces being assigned to riot control without enough training. It's a long time ago, now, anyway.

Good luck with the entry!

Azara

Sounds like Kent State.

worse

Oh!

I don't know obviously what training those B-Specials got, but the vast majority of Specials now don't get public order training at all, which some of them object to, because they would be an exceedingly useful manpower boost in the event of something happening on a large scale.

Still, they can still help, as if it's an evening, Specials can be asked to come in to handle standard section stuff while the regulars go out and deal with the riot.

Thankfully we don't have many riots

I just read your entry.



I can't find anything to criticise. Well written, well composed, interesting, informative, etc. I started reading with no information at all, and learned something.

You neatly avoided both making the unconscious assumption that your reader has some base of information (which results in a confused reader) AND condescension to the uninformed.

Now I have to go back and read it again. There must be at least a typo I can point out.

Please do. Only one has been spotted so far.

There's a bit more information I need to add, which I will do when I have time to work out how to fit it in without disrupting everything.

Footnote 10 - 'Which may be down to...'

Do you mean 'Which may be DUE to...'?

(You did ask me to look