Crime and Policing In East Lothian

The image of the village policeman, maintaining order in a more peaceful era, is a reassurance of law enforcement that was appropriate to those times.

'A particular memory of one of those old policemen, hat on the back of his head, tunic unbuttoned, digging a shaw of potatoes from the police station garden, to have with his dinner, while all was well in the village - such tranquillity. But he never got his dinner. I arrived, with bad timing, to take him down to the main police station where he was required to assist with other duties. I suppose that was the demise of village policing, and the beginning of centralisation; and I was part of that'.

Edward McMillan