“Policeman, love the worker, who in the struggle for life is a companion”. The police and the people (Chile, 1910-1924)

Abstract

The article presents the voices of different officials of the chilean police regarding their relations with the people, in a context of exacerbation of the social question. The main sources are the Boletín de la Policía de Santiago that circulated between 1901 and 1924 and the magazine Ilustración Policial published between 1921 and 1924. We suggest that the police developed a powerful reflection in order to strengthen its relations with the working class and reverse the so called “ancestral hatred” that characterized their interaction with the urban population.