Department of Law, University of Leeds

POLICING - UNIT 1 - THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF POLICING

Part 1:3 - 'THE 'NEW' POLICE'

David S. Wall, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies

Police respond to the demands of high technology (1901)

Objectives - To engender a critical awareness of the existing (orthodox) preconceptions of the 'new' police model, particularly those arising from the orthodox interpretations of police history. Also to bring about an understanding of the fragmentedness of the organisation of 'new' policing in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Critchley, T.A., (1967) A History of the Police in England and Wales 900 - 1966, Constable, London. - Chapters 2 - 5.
Emsley, C., (1996) The English Police, 2nd Edition, Wheatsheaf Harvester, London. - Chapters 2/3.
Emsley, C., and Clapson, M. (1994) 'Recruiting the English Policeman C. 1840-1940,' Policing and Society, Vol 3, pp. 269-286.
Lustgarten, L., (1986) The Governance of the Police, London, Sweet hand Maxwell - Chapter 2
Phillips, D., (1977) Crime and Authority in Victorian England, London, Croom Helm.
Rawlings, P. (2000) Policing: A Short History, Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Reiner, R., (2000) The Politics of the Police, 3rd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Chapter 2.
Storch, R., (1986) Plague of Blue Locusts, in Fitzgerald, M., et al (ed) Crime and Society: Readings in History and
                Theory, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Wall, D.S. (1998) The Chief Constables of England and Wales: The socio-legal history of a criminal justice elite, Aldershot: Dartmouth. Chapters 2 and 3

Bessant's peeler - The real thing
Contrasting views of the early police officer

(i) Composition, Size - Initially about four thousand men (women could not join the police until the turn of the century).

(ii) The first police officers - Drawn from the lower working classes, the upper ranks were drawn from NCOs (Non-commissioned officers). There were four main reasons for appointing from the working classes.

• They were cheap to employ
• They understood those they policed
• The upper classes actively distanced themselves from the lower orders
• The idea of policing was felt to be distasteful to the upper classes, far too distasteful for gentlemen to be involved with, even 'reduced gentlemen'.

(iv) Managing the Metropolitan Police - The first Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police were Richard Mayne, an Irish Barrister aged 32, and Col. Charles Rowan aged 47, a veteran of the Light Brigade. The combination of a lawyer and a military man established the link between the law and the military and the police.

There existed an inherent problem with managing working class men and that was the fact that the Commissioners didn't         understand them. A communication problem developed. The problem of communication creation was solved by introducing a new position, the 'Visiting Superintendent', as a liaison between the senior ranks and management resolved that problem (later became known as Chief Constable (MET) and later Commander).

Well 'ard men
In the 1860s the police wore beards to make them look more 'fierce' (allegedly)

(v) The Metropolitan Police Personnel Model - The Metropolitan Police provided a basic organisational model for a police force. Remember that a full-time force of this type had never existed before. The organisation of the Metropolitan police was used as a model for provincial reforms.

(vi) Effect of Metropolitan Police on crime - This is hard to assess, there was much fear of, and a little evidence to show that, crime was displaced from the Metropolitan Police Area into the surrounding areas. The extent of this displacement should not be overstated !

(b) The Provincial Police: The Borough Police 1.

• Attempts to revitalise the old system - The Lighting and Watching Acts 1830/33 and Special Constables Act 1831 were designed to revitalise the unpaid, part- time 'old' police.
• Reform in the Boroughs: Municipal Corporations Act 1835 - Police reform in the Boroughs was achieved through the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, it was part of a parcel of municipal reforms during the 1830s and, amongst other Municipal reforms, the Act created local police forces. The borough police reforms were driven by the need to maintain order and detect and prevent crime.
• Take up of the act - The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 was not too popular at first due to its financial implications for local government, but other benefits were soon realised. By 1853 155 out of 178 boroughs had fully installed a force. Only six had failed to do so completely and the rest had installed at least part of the act.
• Managing the Borough forces - Management of the borough forces was, unlike the Metropolitan Police, carried out by a watch committee of local councillors. They had control over the appointment and dismissal of officers and, importantly, over the operation of policing.

In practice many of the watch committee's powers were delegated to a trusted superintending or 'head' constable but they tended to call the shots.

(c) The Provincial Police 2: The County Police.

• The County Police Act 1839 - Reform of the police in the counties was driven by the need to maintain order. Initially rejected by Quarter Sessions the County Police Act 1839 was accepted in the face of Chartist unrest. Take up was initially voluntary.
• Take up of the Act - By 1856 only 25 out of 55 counties had installed police forces.
• Managing the County Police. - The Quarter Sessions (until 1888) and Standing Joint Committee (from 1889) were charged with appointing a chief constable. Once appointed the chief constable had great powers over the force and the SJC's powers were minimal unless the chief constable messed up. Quite understandably, the SJC would only appoint people of a similar world outlook to themselves to manage their force.

The Report of the Constabulary Commissioners 1839 - Edwin Chadwick wanted a national police. This was not a very popular idea with the legislature for many of the reasons put forward to scupper previous attempts at police reform.

Further police reforms - The Birmingham and Manchester Police Bills 1839

• Policing in the 1840s - If you stood outside Picadilly Station in Manchester and shouted for a police officer you'd find that the local borough police were wearing brown whereas the county police were wearing green tunics. There might also be some men with truncheons and arm bands and they would be the early railway police.
• Like the early Metropolitan Police the provincial police were an unstable group. One of most important characteristics required of a constable, especially in the counties, was an understanding of their own place in the social order.
• Social changes and demands for policing - Fears about Chartist unrest and also a countryside awash with ex-servicemen at end of Crimean war plus the end of transportation as a punishment drove the engine for further police reform.

1853 Select Committee on the Police - The 1853 Select Committee on the Police examined the effectiveness of policing arrangements.

• Crime was found to have reduced in areas where police forces were introduced - I am not entirely sure how that could estimate this fully (they do give graphs etc) as record keeping was not very good and it is hard to tease out the effects (if any) of displacement.
• The attempts to revitalise the old system were accepted to be a failure (see earlier).
• The fundamental idea behind new police was good and any existing problems were due to low staffing, fragmented organisation, unhealthy rivalry between counties and boroughs.

The County and Borough Police Act 1856 was very important.

• It made the introduction of police compulsory in both counties and boroughs.
• It introduced an Inspectorate of Constabulary to regulate policing.
• It enabled the treasury on certification by the inspectorate to pay half of the costs of running a local police force. (It also encouraged crime record keeping.
• It forced the very small boroughs to amalgamate with the local county force thus reducing the overall number of very small independent police forces (some were as small as two or three officers).

The introduction of the 'new police' was not simply the product of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. Whilst it was influential in that it provided a model for the expansion of the 'new' police to the counties and boroughs of England and Wales, the meaning and nature of policing did, however tend to vary between each jurisdiction through the development of local models and understandings of policing. It took two decades for the 'new police' to become compulsory throughout England and Wales.

The Metropolitan Police Act's greatest legacy was its model of organisation. The first Metropolitan police officers were working class people who were chosen to police the working classes. This principle thus established the much quoted (and often overstated) relationship between the police and the community.

After the Metropolitan Police were installed there followed provincial police reforms driven by the need (especially in the Boroughs) to regulate crime, apprehend offenders and more importantly to maintain the peace in the face of an increase in civil unrest.

The Metropolitan Police experience provided a tried and (partially) tested organisational model for a police organisation. Along with its personnel policy of drawing police officers from the working class to police the working classes the model was copied by provincial police authorities when they installed police forces in their areas. There were a few differences however which will be discussed later.

Control over the police and their operational policies was placed firmly in the hands of local power elites. The Watch Committee in the Boroughs (controlled by local elected politicians) and the Quarter Sessions in the Counties controlled by the local Magistrates.

In the 1840s and 1850s a number of demographic problems were threatening the fragile new police system by placing new demands upon it which it could not meet. The scaling down of transportation as a penal policy combined with the ending of the Crimean War causing hundreds of thousands of displaced ex-soldiers to roam the land threatened to escalate crime and create further potential for unrest. The basic problem with the police was that its organisation was fragmented and required standardisation.

The 1853 Select Committees found that the idea of a full-time paid police was a success and made it compulsory for all county and borough authorities to install a police force. Until the 1856 Act, only the boroughs had a compulsory obligation to install a police force.

The 1856 Act went beyond making police forces compulsory. It also introduced the basis for a program of police standardisation. Inspectors of Constabulary were appointed to inspect forces and if certified as efficient police authorities would be paid a quarter of their policing costs.

Metropolitan Police Act 1829
Special Constables Act 1831
Lighting and Watching Acts 1830/33
Municipal Corporations Act 1835
City of London Police Act 1839
County Police Act 1839
Town and County Police Clauses Act 1847
County and Borough Police Act 1856

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