The First World War introduced new tasks into British policing. One significant addition was the close and systematic surveillance of aliens residing in Britain, a role never before undertaken by the British police and one that would previously have been considered un-English. During the war, various official bodies participated in the regulation of the lives of foreigners, but the police played a crucial part. Foreigners hailing from enemy countries, particularly Germans, bore the brunt of police attention, which can be described as nothing short of discriminatory and oppressive. This article examines the new responsibilities of the British police for controlling German nationals and the public response to the new policing. It also assesses the police's wartime performance and the implications of their conduct for the lives of these Germans, all of which has hitherto been little explored. The police were widely considered, both by large segments of the British public and in many other countries, as the best police force in the world, morally superior to other constabularies, especially in their relatively tolerant attitudes toward the public. Their conduct in a time of national crisis, and particularly the degree of tolerance they exercised in their relations with a hated, indeed outcast minority, offers an illuminating case study.

第一次世界大战给英国警务带来了新的任务。一个重要的补充是对居住在英国的外国人进行密切和系统的监视，这是英国警方以前从未承担过的角色，以前被认为是非英国人。战争期间，各种官方机构都参与了对外国人生活的监管，但警察发挥了至关重要的作用。来自敌对国家的外国人，尤其是德国人，首当其冲受到警方的关注，可以说是歧视和压迫。本文探讨了英国警察在控制德国国民方面的新职责以及公众对新警察的反应。它还评估了警察的战时表现以及他们的行为对这些德国人生活的影响，迄今为止，所有这些都很少被探索。大部分英国公众和许多其他国家的警察都被广泛认为是世界上最好的警察部队，在道德上优于其他警察，特别是在他们对公众相对宽容的态度方面。他们在国家危机时期的行为，尤其是他们在与被憎恨、实际上是被抛弃的少数群体的关系中表现出的宽容程度，提供了一个富有启发性的案例研究。