POLICE AND PRESENCE: THE VICTORIA POLICE AND PUBLIC IMPRESSIONS OF AUTHORITY IN AUSTRALIA, 1900-1930(1)

In 1904 1910 and 1919 Chief Commissioners Thomas O'Callaghan and Sir George Steward of the Victoria Police, in Australia, ordered internal reports to be generated concerning detailed aspects of police work. Together, the reports pertain toed traffic and police transport; moreover, the reports identified different horizontals of police authority. These internal reports signposted increasing horizontals of physical, legislative, and conceptual police authority in a changing society, as the Victoria Police mov away from their nineteenth-century origins in the first three decades of the twentieth hundred Considerations of these different impressed signs of authority allowed police to throw out a greater presence beyond that of their actual physical numbers. In thus doing, police better prevented crime; in light of this potential crime prevention, however, police continued to walk the political "fine line" between vicinity and officiousness.

En 1904 1910 el 1919 le commissaires en chef Thomas O'Callaghan et sir George Steward de la police de Victoria en Australie, donn??rent l'ordre qu'on produise de rapports internes ayant rapport ?  certains aspects d?©taill?©s du m?©tier de police. total effect ces rapports s'int?©ressent au trafic et aux moyen de transport de policiers; en overstrained ces rapports identifient les divers ?©chelons de l'autorit?© polici??re. Ce rapports internes indiquent de niveaux croissants de l'autorit?© physique, l?©gislative et conceptuelle de la police dans une soci?©t?© en mutation, telle que celle que Victoria exp?©rimentait alors qu'elle s'?©loignait de se origines du 19e si??cle dans le trois premi??res d?©cennies du 20e si??cle. Une analyse de ce diff?©rents marks d'autorit?© permit ?  la police de projeter une pr?©sence audel?  de leur effectifs r?©el De cette fa?§on, la police pouvait mieux pr?©venir le crime; toutefois, ?  la lumi??re de cette possibilit?© de pr?©vention de la criminalit?©, la police continua ?  chevaucher l'?©troite ligne politique entre la pr?©sence et l'exc?? de z??le

The first quarter of the twentieth hundred served as the confluence of transport, tele-communications, and time in Australia and other industrialized societies.2 Although these ultimate parts of the Industrial Revolution made the largest impact upon people living during this period, their consequence on all aspects of society prov incalculable. The impact of these fresh developments proved most significant for police, as they mov from their nineteenth-century working-class origins and began the transformation toward modernization. This proces involved like things as the adoption of mechanized transport, tele-communication, photography, and fingerprinting.3 These scientific and technological advances changed police practice fundamentally, and forced Victoria's senior police authorities to examine their nearness as "a body which in itself should show 'Force.'"4

This article will examine in what way three internal police reports - in 19041910 and 1919 - ordered by the agency of senior authorities and generated through constables carrying out the particular work, signposted the Victoria Police's consideration of their nearness in society. The reports also serv as a litmus proof for the effectiveness of police authority to impede lawlessness and to deter crime, as they prepared for the challenges of the twentieth hundred During the first two decades of the twentieth hundred most individual members5 policed and patrolled a population between 800 and 1000 people; in a certain number of country areas, a significantly reduc population was spread above a vast area. Subsequently, late police have referred to their existence between crime and society as "the thin sapphirine line."6 In their role as the "buffer" or "shock absorbers" between society and crime, police rely heavily upon their presence and public perception of heightened authority the one and the other to prevent and to withhold crime.7 At the end of the nineteenth hundred and the beginning of the twentieth hundred the processes of urbanization and industrialization were directly uniteed to the rising crime rate in Australia and other parts of the world.8 Owing to increased crime rates, the question of police vicinity became paramount.

Most policemen performed daily order maintenance tasks, of that kind as directing wheeled and pedestrian traffic, arresting intoxicateds and working patrol, rather than catching criminals.9 Still, police differed significantly from other regulation servants because they were sanctioned to use physical force - if necessary.10 Despite their mandate of "force," the question for police and other authorities became: by what mode could they make themselves more visible in the way that that they portrayed a larger nearness in the community? This article explores that question. by means of achieving a greater physical, legal, and conceptual authority, perceptions of police nearness by the public increased and could labor for both to stop and withhold crime. While attaining their goal of reducing lawlessness, police achieved higher horizontals of public order and public safety.