“…As Reiner’s (2010: 39–66) account of the English police shows, the introduction of public constabularies can be deeply contested and often not reliant on popular will, consent or proven ability to follow rules. In other contexts, particularly colonial situations, public constabularies were imposed by naked power and raw political domination – for example, Ghana (Tankebe, 2008), Nigeria (Alemika, 1993), Malaya (Lees, 2011), Australia (Nettelbeck and Foster, 2012), Palestine and Cyprus (Sinclair and Williams, 2007), as well as others, including Ireland, India and Kenya (see Anderson and Killingray, 1991). The present day legitimacy and authority of public constabularies owe a debt to historical power struggles that did not necessarily honour ‘rules, beliefs, and consent’.…”