police

• Watchmen


  • Patrolled cities on foot at night
  • Dealt with petty crime
• Parish constables


  • Dealt with petty crime
• Soldiers

  • Used to put down riots and large protests across the country
• Bow Street Runners

  Established in London in 1749 by Henry Fielding, Chief Magistrate at Bow Street Court, to try to tackle increased crime in London
• Bow Street Runners

  1. Charged fees and collected rewards

  2. Paid by the government by 1785

  3. Introduced new methods of finding evidence to bring criminals to justice

  4. Branched out to patrolling major roads both on foot and horse

  5. Shared information on crimes and suspects with others
• The Bow Street Runners were the first modern 'detectives'
• Metropolitan Police Act - began Britain's first professional police force in London


  1829
• Municipal Corporations Act - borough councils could set up police forces in their area


  1835
• Rural Constabulary Act - counties could set up police forces


  1839
• regular Detective department set up at the Metropolitan Police Force headquarters in London

  1842
• Police Act - forced all towns and counties to set up a professional police force


  1856
• Criminal Investigations Department (CID) set up for the Metropolitan Police Force

  1878
• Metropolitan Police Act, 1829


  Set up a centralised police force across the whole of London
• Commissioner Sir Charles Warren


  A former army general, appointed Met Commissioner in 1886, banned a planned unemployment protest in Trafalgar Square in 1887 which led to violent clashes, and failed to catch Jack the Ripper in 1888 which cost him his job
• The 'beat' constable

  A major aim of the Met was to prevent crime, its main way of doing this was to deploy constables on the 'beat' - patrolling a set route of streets to deter criminals from committing crime