Since the 1980s there have been major changes in the structure and regulation of policing in the UK, involving greater centralisation of police services and a radical overhaul of control and direction. This important new work examines these changes and the vastly altered constitutional landscape they have created. It discusses how the police are now viewed under the constitution, and how this has influenced their actions and reputation. This is a major new study of a topical subject which combines a clear explanation of the current law with a sociologically-informed understanding of its origins. The book analyses the merits and demerits of the new constitutional arrangements for policing.