This paper will discuss the 1936–1939 Revolt in Palestine, with a specific focus on the role and perceptions of Palestinian policemen during this period. The overarching narrative of the Revolt is one of anti-colonial struggle, but its character in specific locations was often shaped by the more obscure and less easily discerned currents of village, family, and personal politics that churned beneath the tide of rebellion. The police as an institution touched, and was a touchstone for, the various levels on which the Revolt played out. Some policemen were identified as traitors and targeted for assassination, while others were hailed as heroes for their willingness to abandon their posts, steal weapons, train rebels, or provide information to the rebel leadership. Meanwhile, policemen and rebels enjoyed greater opportunity to exploit their power to further personal, family, or other kinds of local interests. Although scholars have explored how the British employed a discourse of criminality to delegitimize the political aims of the Revolt, this paper will try to show how political discourse also infused and confused crime and policing on a local level during this period. Departing from the standard narrative of Palestinian policemen during the Great Revolt—in which Palestinian policemen were regarded by British authorities as ineffective or untrustworthy, and by Palestinians as collaborators—this paper uses police documents, memoirs, and court records to demonstrate the complexity of policing during an anti-colonial rebellion. It will thus address the British colonial administration’s multifaceted view of this group, as a potential fifth column, a vulnerable sector of state employees, and a possible resource in their attempts to quash the rebellion. Further, assessing the different choices made by Palestinian policemen will illuminate and emphasize the fluidity and liminality of their positions. The complex interplay of national, local, and family politics, as well as the opportunism, reflected in Palestinian policemen’s experience of the Revolt will thus shed light on often-overlooked aspects of the Revolt itself, in particular some of the divisions within Palestinian Arab society and their role in the ultimate failure of the Revolt.