The book describes development of modernizing organizational, forensic and detection techniques, and the dilemmas of policing in a period of increasing state encroachment upon citizens' thoughts and deeds. In the period covered, policing came under intense official and public scrutiny which led to commissions of enquiry, which, in turn, gave rise to a reformed police force whose basic methods and organization lasted for decades. The book is divided into five parts: (1) Problematic Policing in the Stabilized Society, 1886-1897; (2) Trauma and Reform: Tunbridge's Commissionership, 1897-1903; (3) The Pursuit of "Professionalisation", 1903-1912; (4) Industrial Unionism, Police Unionism, 1912-1913; and (5) Challenges and Continuities, 1913-1917. Figures, references, notes, bibliography, index