The police, a body of public security, have many guises and meanings. For a good understanding, its logic, structures, tasks, practices, and actors must always be situated in their historical context. In order to do so, the documents that bear witness to its past (and present) actions must also be subjected to a specific scientific reading and processing. This platform aims to offer concise and didactic explanations of the main epistemological, source-critical and methodological issues within the historiography of police institutions in Western Europe from the Ancien Régime to the present.

MENEPOLHIS is neither a history of the police, nor an encyclopedia of the police, nor a methodological handbook of police history. It is a platform that brings together such research tools. MENEPOLHIS is the outcome of historiographic innovation and of various international collaborations between historians of police and security. The platform makes notes, case studies and 'thematic files' , on 6 major themes available to researchers, students, genealogists, police officers and anyone else whose historical research involves police institutions or archives.

The 6 following major chapters are covered :