As I have already shown Holmes does not like the official police force but his attitude is different towards individual officers. There are two officers that Holmes respects; their names are Lestrade and Gregory. Lestrade is described by Holmes as, “obtuse but resolute.” By this Holmes means although Lestrade is not very sharp, he is firmly determined. Also Holmes says, “Inspector Gregory…is an extremely competent officer.” But also states “Were he but gifted with imagination, he might rise to great heights in his profession.” In all of the Holmes stories these two officers are the only ones that Holmes Respects.
Holmes likes to take the law into his own hands, he does thing the officers in the police force cannot do. In the “Bruce-Partington Plans” Lestrade says to Holmes “We can’t do these things in the force, Mr. Holmes” and he also says “No wonder you get results that are beyond us.” This is showing that Holmes solves cases quicker and gets more information because for example, he breaks into someone’s house illegally. This is also showing that he has little respect for the law and the official police force.
The difference between Sherlock Holmes and the official police force is that Holmes is the professional; this is because of the methods he uses to solve crimes.
Sherlock Holmes works in a methodical fashion. In “Silver Blaze” Dr Watson describes Holmes’s methods of work as “Quiet and systematic” whereas Holmes brings to attention his “Scientific methods” in “The Bruce-Partington Plans” “One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them.” At the beginning of “The Cardboard Box,” Dr Watson comments on Holmes’s “Remarkable mental qualities.” Holmes mentions this when describing his brother Mycroft: “He has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for storing facts, of any man living. The same great powers which I have turned to the detection of crime.”
There are two key aspects of Holmes’s scientific methods and one of them is his observation skills. In “the Cardboard Box,” he is shown observing people. An example of this is when he works out what Dr Watson is thinking when he was reading a newspaper article: “Do you mean to say that you read my train of thoughts from my features?” “Your features and especially your eyes.” Holmes is telling Dr Watson that he can work out what he is thinking by his facial expression and body language. Another example of his observation skills is in the same story when he goes to Susan Cushing’s house and as soon as he walks in he tells her, “You have two sisters, I believe.”
“How could you know that?”
“I observed the very instant that I entered the room that you have a portrait group of three ladies upon the mantelpiece one of whom is undoubtedly yourself, while the other are so exceedingly like you that there could be no doubt of the relationship.” As well as observing people, Holmes also observes places. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes is walking up and down outside on the lawn where he is looking for damage on the end wall and he says, “By the way, there does not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end wall.” After noticing this, it may seem that he is suspicious about the reason why there is scaffolding and why Miss Stoner had to move out of her room.
In all of Holmes’s cases, he likes to find out all of the facts and information that he will need. Before he even starts to solve a case, he likes to interview his clients, read newspaper articles and observe what is happening to find out more. He doesn’t like to go into a case not knowing everything.
Many people accuse Holmes of daydreaming when he is meant to be solving a case but infact he is deep in thought reconstructing what happened in his mind. A perfect example of this is in “The Speckled Band” where Watson says “my companion sat in front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his eyes and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the deepest thought.” Any person in the same room would probably think he was daydreaming or sleeping but as I said he is actually reconstructing the incident in his mind eye.
In effect he is using his powers of deduction; this is the other key aspect of his scientific methods. Watson comments on this in “The Speckled Band:” “I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions and yet always founded on a logical basis, with which he unraveled the problems.”
Holmes’s powers of deduction are shown in “The Sussex Vampire” where he says “my instinct felt the presence of these weapons before my eyes ever saw them.” He says this because Ferguson’s wife is South American.
In the “Bruce-Partington plans” Lestrade comments on Holmes’s methods and admits Holmes is more successful than other police. This is successful because he is willing to work outside the law when it is necessary. In addition, Holmes’s scientific methods make his superior to the police.