Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also black and white work) handwriting; thus written proof.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: black and white under one’s Hand, or in Writing.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1823		J.F. Cooper Pilot (1824) II 44: I have it in black and white, to run the Ariel into this feather-bed sort of a place.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc. 11: ‘Black and White for it;’ written proof or evidence.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 15: No black and white work (writing) mid; you know the proverb, ‘Writings are men, words but women’.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

2. (UK tramp) tea and sugar.

1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 74: I [...] explore my many pockets for the packet of black-and-white which a tramp like me always carries with him.
1935		(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 282: Isobel toiled all day to serve them with ‘pennyworths of black and white’.

3. (US, also b and w, green-and-white) a police car painted black and white (or other colours where relevant).

[1951		P. Whelton Angels are Painted Fair 119: ‘We’ll do it,’ I said swinging out to pass a black and white prowl car].
1972		J. Wambaugh Blue Knight 283: Another black-and-white cruised past.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 95: Okay, Omar, get in the black and white.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 27: Their images distorted by the console flasher on the black-and-white.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 157: Garcia could have sent only the green-and-whites, but Decker was a friend.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 440: Fisk met him there – a mock Tudor lit by headlights – black-and-whites, crime lab cars on the lawn.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 158: The chain wending through the blackandwhites and unmarked units.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 5: b&w (or black’n’white) – a squad car.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 292: It was 9.45 when we turned the corner and saw several black and whites, roof lights spinning bright.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ Destination: Morgue! (2004) 309: Black-and-whites, unmarkeds, coroner’s canoes – all snared up snout to snout.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘If he was wired up, the black-and-whites would already be rolling in to save they boy’s life. He clean’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 9: Sheriff’s black-and-whites blew past us.

4. attrib. use of sense 3, pertaining to motorized police officers.

1958

E. Gilbert Vice Trap 20: Those black and white birds weren’t after me.

5. (US) a police officer.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 66: The vehicles and flashing lights that identify their continuous presence in the lives of blacks (black and white, salt and pepper).

6. (drugs) a black and white capsule, esp. Biphetamine, Dilantin/Phenobarbitol mix.

1968		F. Dawtry Social Problems of Drug Abuse in Spears (1986).
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 124: The names they had for drugs were: French Blues, Black and Whites, Black Bombers.

7. (drugs) a 12.5mg capsule of the amphetamine Durophet.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 3: Black and white — Amphetamine.

8. a document.

1974

G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 189: Everyone [...] had at some time suffered paranoia about telephones being tapped. And not unreasonably, for more than enough of them were tapped. But not, however, as most people imagined, officially, with all the black and whites correct.