The police constable who carried out his duties without question existed only in fiction and police instruction books. Actual constables sidestepped orders to make their jobs less irksome, ignored orders they considered unfair, and made mistakes. Many infractions remained undiscovered or unrecorded; police memoirs usually related at least one instance when a default went unnoticed. One new constable remembered senior men telling him the locations of safe places to ‘skulk in’ and smoke, of peep shows, and of night watchmen with coal fires. Though taking advantage of this information, he was never caught. All constables broke rules at some point in their careers if only because, humanly speaking, no one could perform every single duty. Complicating their lives, the line between exercising discretion and committing defaults was never stable. The same decision could be viewed as good judgment by one senior officer and as a violation by another. Some handled discipline more informally, giving unofficial warnings and advice to constables committing minor infractions.