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Law enforcement
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The history of law enforcement in the United Kingdom charts the development of law
enforcement in the United Kingdom.[1][2]
Victorian Police Officer with itinerant circa 1900 - recreation. The officer is pictured wearing a duty armband on
his left wrist.
David Kirkwood being detained by police during the 1919 Battle of George Square.
Eurocopter EC 135 T2 providing law enforcement and medical assistance in the Avon and Somerset Police,
and Gloucestershire Police areas, based at Bristol Filton Airport.
Contents
1History
o 1.1Watchmen and Constables
o 1.2London
o 1.3Boroughs and Counties
o 1.4National Policing
o 1.5Modern Policing
o 1.6Height of officers
2Timeline
3See also
4References
5Further reading
History[edit]
Watchmen and Constables[edit]
The Statute of Winchester 1285 was the primary piece of legislation that regulated the policing of the
country in the period after the Norman Conquest until the nineteenth century. Of particular note was
the requirement to raise hue and cry, and that "the whole hundred … shall be answerable" for
any theft or robbery, in effect a form of collective responsibility.[3]
During this period, law enforcement and policing were organised by local communities such as town
authorities. Within local areas, a constable could be attested by two or more Justices of the Peace, a
procedure that some sources say had its roots in an Act of the Parliament of England of
1673.[4] From the 1730s, local improvement Acts made by town authorities often included provision
for paid watchmen or constables to patrol towns at night, while rural areas had to rely on more
informal arrangements.[5] In 1737, an Act of Parliament was passed "for better regulating the Night
Watch" of the City of London which specified the number of paid constables that should be on duty
each night.[6] Henry Fielding established the Bow Street Runners in 1749; between 1754 and
1780, Sir John Fielding reorganised Bow Street like a police station, with a team of efficient, paid
constables.[7]
In 1800, some town authorities became more involved in improving local policing. An Act of
Parliament in 1800 enabled Glasgow to establish the City of Glasgow Police. As the population in
industrial towns grew, more local Acts were passed to improve policing arrangements in those
towns, such as Rochdale in Lancashire in 1825, and Oldham in 1827.[5] In Ireland, the Belfast
Borough Police (1800), Dublin Metropolitan Police (1836) and Londonderry Borough Police (1848)
were founded. (At this time, all of Ireland was part of the UK.)
In November 1830 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway set up their own police establishment
under legislation going back to 1673. They were to preserve law and order on the construction site
and to control movement of railway traffic – by hand signals. This practice spread with the
development of railways, and small shelters were erected at these stations, becoming known as
police stations. Where there was no police control they were just known as stations. To this day
signalmen are known as ‘bobbies’.
Sir Robert Peel, appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1812, found local magistrates and the
Baronial Police unable to maintain law and order. he set up a Peace Preservation Force in 1814 and
a system of county constabularies under the Irish Constabulary Act 1822.[8]
London[edit]
Further information: History of the Metropolitan Police Service and Peelian Principles
London in the early 1800s had a population of nearly a million and a half people but was policed by
only 450 constables and 4,500 night watchmen. The idea of professional policing was taken up
by Sir Robert Peel when he became Home Secretary in 1822. Peel's Metropolitan Police Act
1829 established a full-time, professional and centrally-organised police force for the greater London
area known as the Metropolitan Police. The new Metropolitan Police were responsible for an area of
7 miles in radius from the centre of the city (excluding the City of London), which was later extended
to 15 miles. The government intentionally tried to avoid creating any likeness between the police and
a military force; in particular the officers of the new police force were not armed and a blue uniform
was chosen, dissimilar to that of the army. During this period, the Metropolitan Police was
accountable directly to the Home Secretary (whereas today it is accountable to the Mayor of London
and the Metropolitan Police Authority).[9][10]
The City of London was not included within the remit of the Metropolitan Police because the Mayor
and Corporation of the City of London refused to be part of a London-wide force because the City of
London had certain liberties dating back to Magna Carta.[9] The London City Police was formed in
1832, later renamed in 1839 to the City of London Police.[11]
Boroughs and Counties[edit]
In the early 1800s, Newcastle had a police force that was accountable to the mayor and council.
Liverpool, which was at the time a city of around 250,000 people, had only watchmen and parish
constables for policing, with a small police force for the dock area. The establishment of more formal
policing in cities started to gain more support among the public as cities grew and society became
more prosperous and better organised through understanding of legal rights, education and better
informed through the press.[12]
In 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act was passed by Parliament which required 178 Royal
Boroughs to set up paid police forces.[6] In 1839 the Rural Constabulary Act allowed county areas to
establish police forces if they chose to at a local level; Wiltshire was the first county to do this.[10] a
further eight county police forces were formed in 1839, twelve in 1840, four in 1841 and another four
by 1851.[6]
By 1851 there were around 13,000 policemen in England and Wales, although existing law still did
not require local authorities to establish local police forces.[10]
National Policing[edit]
The UK's first national police force was the Irish Constabulary, established in 1837. It received the
appellation Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867 after its success in suppressing the Fenian Rising.
In 1847 two pieces of national legislation were enacted - the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 and
the Harbours, Docks, and Piers Clauses Act 1847.[4] Parliament continued to discuss the idea of
national policing and, by the early 1850s, the Government was thinking about implementing policing
across the nation.[13]
After the County and Borough Police Act in 1856, policing became a requirement throughout
England and Wales paid for by central government Treasury department funds distributed to local
government. In addition, the Act formed a "central inspectorate of constabulary" that would assess
the effectiveness of each constabulary and report regularly to the Home Secretary. Parliament
passed a similar Act for Scotland in 1857.[10]
By 1900, England, Wales and Scotland had 46,800 policemen and 243 constabularies.[10]
The Police Act of 1946 led to the merger of a number of smaller town forces and surrounding county
forces, leaving 117 constabularies. Further mergers took place following the 1964 Police Act which
cut the number of police forces in England and Wales to 47, and Scotland to 20.[10]
Modern Policing[edit]
Since the 1960s, police forces in the United Kingdom have been merged and modernised by several
Acts of Parliament.
Height of officers[edit]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries most forces required that recruits be at least 5 feet 10 inches
(178 cm) in height. By 1960 many forces had reduced this to 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm), and 5 feet
4 inches (163 cm) for women. Many senior officers argued that height was a vital requirement for a
uniformed constable.[14] Some forces retained the height standard at 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) or
5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) until the early 1990s. In May 1990, the minimum height requirement was
dropped by the Metropolitan Police, and other police forces had followed suit by September 1990.
No British force now requires its recruits to be of any minimum height.
The MacPherson report of 1999 recommended against height restrictions, arguing that they may
discriminate against those of ethnic backgrounds who are genetically predisposed to be shorter than
average.[15] The shortest officer in the UK, PC Sue Day of Wiltshire Police, is 4 feet 10 inches
(147 cm) tall.[16] The tallest is PC Anthony Wallyn of the Metropolitan Police who is 7 feet 2 inches
(218 cm) tall.[17] Both officers had to have their uniforms specially made for them due to their size.
Timeline[edit]
See also[edit]
History of criminal justice § Modern police
Law enforcement
References[edit]
1. ^ Terrill, Richard J. (2015). World Criminal Justice Systems: A
Comparative Survey(revised ed.). Routledge. pp. 30–
53. ISBN 1317228820.
2. ^ Dempsey, John S.; Forst, Linda S. (2015). An Introduction to
Policing (8 ed.). Cengage Learning. pp. 6–8. ISBN 1305544684.
3. ^ Critchley, Thomas Alan (1978). A History of Police in England and
Wales. The Statute of Winchester was the only general public
measure of any consequence enacted to regulate the policing of the
country between the Norman Conquest and the Metropolitan Police
Act, 1829…
4. ^ Jump up to:a b "Independent Port Constabularies - History" (PDF).
Independent Port Constabularies. Archived from the original (PDF) on
30 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b "Watchmen and constables". UK Parliament.
Retrieved 29 December 2013.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c "British Police Service". City of London Police.
Retrieved 28 December 2013.
7. ^ "Sir John Fielding". The National Archives. Retrieved 29
December 2013.
8. ^ https://www.psni.police.uk/inside-psni/our-history/a-history-of-
policing-in-ireland/
9. ^ Jump up to:a b "Sir Robert Peel and the new Metropolitan Police".
The National Archives. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f "Metropolitan Police". UK Parliament.
Retrieved 29 December 2013.
11. ^ "History of City of London Police Key dates". City of London Police.
Retrieved 29 December 2013.
12. ^ "Provincial Police Forces". The National Archives. Retrieved 29
December 2013.
13. ^ "Creating the nation's police force". UK Parliament. Retrieved 29
December 2013.
14. ^ Royal Commission on the Police, Interim Report, 1960
15. ^ "Britain's smallest police officer nicknamed laptop". 2010-01-16.
Retrieved 2017-09-05.
16. ^ "People look up to Britain's shortest cop". Swindon Advertiser. 2010-
01-17. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
17. ^ Cooper, Charlie (4 March 2013). "High and low security: Britain's
tallest policeman Anthony Wallyn stood guard with Met's shortest
officer outside hospital where Queen was treated for
gastroenteritis". The Independent. London.
18. ^ "The Glasgow Police Museum". Retrieved 3 January 2015.
19. ^ "History". Metropolitan Police Service. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
Further reading[edit]
Churchill, David. Crime control and everyday life in the Victorian
city: the police and the public (2017).
Churchill, David C. "Rethinking the state monopolisation thesis: the
historiography of policing and criminal justice in nineteenth-century
England." Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime, History &
Societies 18.1 (2014): 131-152. online
Emsley, Clive. "Police" in James Eli Adams, ed., Encyclopedia of
the Victorian Era (2004) 3:221-24.
Emsley, Clive.Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900 (5th ed.
2018)
Emsley, Clive. The English police: A political and social
history (2014).
Lyman, J.L. "The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829: An Analysis of
Certain Events Influencing the Passage and Character of the
Metropolitan Police Act in England," Journal of Criminal Law,
Criminology, and Police Science (1964) 55#1 pp. 141-154 online
Taylor, James. "White-collar crime and the law in nineteenth-
century Britain." Business History 60.3 (2018): 343-360.
Wilson, David. Pain and Retribution: a short history of British
Prisons 1066 to the present (Reaktion Books, 2014).
Categories:
History of law enforcement in the United Kingdom
Legal history of the United Kingdom
History of the United Kingdom topical overviews
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