Avon and Somerset Constabulary appeared in Bristol between 2000 and 2001 as one of Banksy’s early stencil works.

The work exists in two colour variations, pink and blue background. At its centre are two police officers; they scan the surroundings with binoculars, one looking upwards, the other downwards and in different directions, as if they fail to notice what they are actually searching for. The seriousness of the police is distorted by their aimless gaze; muted colours create a bleak atmosphere.

Banksy’s relationship with law enforcement is, to put it mildly, delicate and a theme he frequently addresses in his works. When the artist began his graffiti career in Bristol, the local police force had an especially harsh policy against graffiti; those caught were imprisoned for their ‘crimes’.

Banksy criticises the strict anti-graffiti policy of the local police force Avon and Somerset Constabulary. By showing the officers searching for street artists, he satirises an authority that focuses on petty offences. The work presents authority figures as ‘blind’ and ‘incompetent’. This is a direct reference to Banksy’s complicated relationship with authority and his youth experiences in Bristol.

He questions the absurdity of societal priorities; while the police ‘protect’ by hunting graffiti, major crimes such as social injustice and poverty are ignored. The work mocks the police force’s motto ‘to protect and to serve’.

If the police are blind even when hunting graffiti, whose eyes are the real criminals escaping from?