Chesterton and Policing

Philosophers are increasingly interested in studying policing, often with an eye to reforming it or even abolishing it. In this paper, I bring together some of G. K. Chesterton’s scattered remarks on the subject. I show that Chesterton anticipates many of the ideas current in the policing literature. Having tried to bring some order to these disparate comments, I then try to construct a preliminary philosophy of policing based on them. I connect Distributist thought to ideas in a recent book by Brandon del Pozo. The upshot, roughly, is that we should look to develop a robust form of community policing that reemphasizes the duties of ordinary citizens and thinks of the duties of professional police as mere extensions of them.