Policing in the town was expanded in wartime with the recruitment of volunteer Special Constables and ARP Wardens.  The job of the police was to keep order in the wartime town, but also to enforce wartime regulations such as the requirement to carry a gas mask at all times, to get into an air raid shelter when the alarm sounded, and to show no lights at night. 

The aim of the ‘black out’ was to deny bombers targets to aim at and a means to navigate. Henley’s newly electrified street lighting was switched off for five years, and vehicle headlights had to be modified to produce less light and shielded. The ‘black out’ imposed on each citizen an additional responsibility for public safety and brought more change into ordinary lives than any other aspect of ARP. All private homes as well as shops and businesses had to have black out curtains on all windows and doors. As part of blackout, churches, which could not effectively black out their windows, shifted their services from night-time to day-time. Patrolling wardens tried to ensure that the blackout was maintained. Almost every week one or two local residents were fined for emitting light and the details of their breach was noted in the local paper.   

When American troops came to the town, the local police toured schools to instruct children not to beg from American servicemen, who offered chewing gum and rides in jeeps.

When aircraft crashed locally, it was the police and fire service whose job it was to secure the site until the military police arrived. A Wellington Bomber, piloted by a local man who flew low over the town to impress his relatives, crashed where the Abrahams housing estate now is.