I was delighted to be asked to write a foreword to this book. It is one of those really thought-provoking and original books about policing that come along all too infrequently, but when they do, they cause you to reflect hard about developments that have become, almost surreptitiously, a part of the wallpaper. The central focus of this book is money, the demand to account for it, the lack of it, and the way that police forces have sought to fill the gap between demand and supply by privatising, reducing core functions, seeking sponsorship, and entering partnerships. I recognise all of these dimensions.

My own career started at the beginning of the 1980s when a rapid expansion of British policing numbers was swiftly followed by a growing interest from the British Treasury in finding ways to hold policing to account for expenditure. Initially, this was through accounting for numbers of police officers. Over the next two decades, it evolved into full-blown managerialism, with a series of attempts to link budgets with performance data. The accompanying scope for chiefs to square the circle between inputs and demand by raising income, securing sponsorship, and entering into partnerships has changed the relationship between the police and the citizen in many, often subtle, ways.