The Glasgow Beat Man

Abstract

This chapter focuses specifically on the role of the Glasgow ‘beat man’ as well as the group identity and reputation that was forged in the city for ‘robust and ‘tough’ policing, grounded in male physical prowess (as embodied masculinity). It was constructed through the culture of the muster hall, inscribed into everyday life through the performance of policing on the beat, and was recognised by working-class communities (through resistance as much as acquiescence or deference). For those seen as ‘law-abiding’, the work of the police officer incorporated assistance, support and a significant social service role, with chivalric paternalism in evidence in relation to the aged and infirm. A different repertoire was deployed in relation to those viewed as anti-social, where ‘toughness’ spilled over into the routine use of physical force in the first half of the century, justified by the police themselves as necessary to maintain authority. The legal tool of ‘breach of the peace’ was a flexible device across the period to counteract the limitations assumed to arise from the rule of corroboration.