In his introduction to The Novel and the Police, Miller describes how “police” refers not just to the government institutions of law enforcement, but also surveillance and discipline more generally. He describes, “To label all this ‘the police’ thus anticipates moving the question of policing out of the streets, as it were, into the closet—I mean, into the private and domestic sphere on which the very identity of the liberal subject depends” (viii-ix). What is established, then, are two separate spheres of policing, the pubic, as is demonstrated by organized police forces and similar institutions, and the private, which is made up of a more social kind of surveillance and discipline. The Moonstone demonstrates how these two spheres of policing can come to be at odds with each other through Sergeant Cuff’s interactions with the Verinder household.
Sergeant Cuff, although being specifically hired to sort out the matter of the Moonstone, is very much distrusted by various members of the household. Both Betteredge and Lady Verinder try very hard to refuse to believe Cuff could possibly be correct in his conclusion the diamond has been stolen from someone inside the house, or as it is later revealed that that Miss Rachel has possibly stolen her own diamond. Ff diamond had been stolen by an outside force, like the three Indians, who also have being radicalized others against them, perhaps Cuff would have been able to easily act as a public police force. But when he attempts to enter private household system that is already carefully policed and surveilled, and act as a police force, then he is rejected.
Cuff, however, seems to be aware of his position as an outsider and the lack of authority he maintains over this system of the home. In fact, he has worked on several occasions with externally policing “family scandals,” and knows how to negotiate within the family. He states, “I had a family scandal to deal with, which it was my business to keep within family limits. The less noise made, and the fewer strangers employed to help me, the better…I trouble [Lady Verinder] with these particulars to show you that I have kept the family secret within the family circle. I am the only outsider who knows it—and my professional existence depends on holding my tongue” (175). In order to be able to police, Cuff must relinquish his public power, and acknowledge that he is not interested in externally policing, but rather wants to act as a mediator in the pursuit of truth. There is no mentions of Rachel possibly being punished formally for her crime if she were to admit to it. Her punishment rather would likely rather be the possibility of her private crime becoming public, and the fallout of her social standing that would ensue. The private forms of policing have too much influence here, and in fact are able to potentially overcome the law.