methods of combatting crime

• T: parish constables


  "sheriffs"

  raise hue and cry

  call a posse comiatus

  patrol town

  appointed by the husbandmen
• T: positives of parish constables

  effective in smaller towns

  maintain order

  reassurance for locals
• T: negatives of parish constables

  unpaid

  less effective in growing towns

  burden - do along with day job
• T: night watchmen


  "charlies" 1663 Charles II Act of Council - bigger + paid force of NW

  info to constable, make arrests, patrol

  thick clothes, bell, lantern, weapon - halberd
• T: negatives of night watchmen

  very low pay: didn't attract skilled men

  by the 18th century they were mocked and ridiculed
• T: role of the JP


  regulate alehouses + wages

  enforce royal authority - obey acts from privy council + council of the marches in wales

  act as a magistrate

  1601 poor law - supervise distribution of poor relief
• T: bishop rowland lee


  JP in Wales 1534 - 1543

  9 years, 5,000 executed

  "thieves I found them and thieves I leave them"
• T: acts of union


  1536 + 1543

  extension of JPs across Wales replacing medieval laws of Hywel Dda

  divided Wales into shires
• T: facts on JP

  300 by end of Liz I reign

  hold a suspect for 3 days

  1581: William lambarde publish 600 p.g. manual to help JP
• I: metropolitan police act 1829


  Robert peel's idea of reform

  HQ= scotland yard

  3,300 in 1st year, all have to be fit and over 5"7

  by 1900 16,000 men in 21 divisions

  opposition from rich - increase tax to fund police
• I: met police 'beat' system


  walk >20 miles a day

  work 7 days a week

  low pay: one guinea a week
• I: municipal corporations act 1835


  towns (later counties) could set up their own forces

  few took advantage of this power
• I: 1856 county and borough police act


  compulsory for every area in ENG and WAL to have a police force
• I: welsh examples of policing

  CDF + SWAN establish forces in the 1830s

  1st major force = Glamorgan county constabulary in 1841
• I: tech + specialisation in the met police

  detective branch in 1842

  use of telegraph to aid communication in 1867

  1869 criminal records office

  criminal investigation dept. 1878
• M: transport policing


  1909 bikes

  1919 motor car

  by the 70s patrol cars had replaced 'bobby on the beat'
• M: developments in personnel

  women police constables 1st appeared in 1919

  1st female chief constable = pauline Clare 1995

  PCSOs 2002

  traffic wardens 1960
• M: communications and technology

  by 1900 all LND stations linked by telegraph

  1920s police telephone boxes

  1922 - 2 way radio

  '999' number in 1937

  CCTV 1942 and dashboard camers
• M: police national computer

  introduced 1974

  today the system holds records on >25m people
• thief takers 


  often former criminals - corrupt

  Charles Hitchens - under city marshal for LND, bribes, arrest 1727

  Johnathan wild - "thief taker general" thieving + fencing, hung at Rayburn 24 may 1725