ESSEX coppers and photography are twins. The invention of photographs can be dated to 1839, when the first camera portrait was taken, and the process patented by Louis Daguerre.
Meanwhile, in Essex, something pretty important was happening as well that year – the formation of the Essex County Police Force. Sharing a common birthday, the local police have grown up alongside the camera.
Almost from the outset, photographers were on hand to capture images of murders and other big crimes.
They were also there to record significant changes, such as the appointment of the first policewoman and the purchases of the first police cars.
The results were collected by working coppers, and now form an archive covering 170 years of policing in Essex.
Essex author Martyn Lockwood has been given a free hand in choosing a selection from these pictures. His choice forms the basis for the Essex Police Force, a visual history of the county constabulary.
The book will be a good stockingfiller for anyone interested in local history, but it also conveys a reassuring message for Christmas.
Contemporary fears about a descent into violence and disorder have to be put into historical context.
Essex was a much more dangerous place for the police and everyone else during the supposedly halcyon days of Queen Victoria. In the past 82 years, just one Essex policeman has been murdered on duty, PC Bill Bishop, who was shot in Frinton in 1984.
By contrast, the photo-chronicles of 19th century Essex are sadly peppered with the faces of officers who died in the line of duty, confronting criminals.
The victims even include one chief constable.
Yet it is the homelier scenes that are perhaps the most memorable, such as the shot of a bobby’s daughter fondly straightening his tunic.
Like most of the pictures in the book, this evocative picture probably says more about the reality of day-to-day policing. than the grisly shot of murder victim Camille Holland’s decayed corpse being dredged from a moat.
Proceeds from the book will provide financial support for the Essex Police Museum.
l The Essex Police Force by Martyn Lockwood is published by the History Press and is available at local bookshops for £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7524 5167 1
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