CRIME PREVENTION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 December 1931, Page 7

CRIME PREVENTION

HISTORY IN BRIEF DEVELOPMENT OF POLICE WORE IN LONDON METROPOLITAN FORCE. CELEBRATION OF CENTENARY. "The primary objeCt of an efficient police is the prevention of crime; the next that of detection and punishment of offenders if crime is committed. "To these ends all the efforts of police must be directed. The protection of life and property, the preservation of public tranquility, and the absence of crime, will alone prove whether those efforts have been successful, and whether the objects for which the police were appointed have been attained." These were the first sentences in the instructions issued to the police in 1829, and they have ever since formed the preface to the General Orders of the London Metropolitan Police as the best expression of the general principles on which 8the new police system was founded and has since been carried on.

The history of the founding and development of that wonderful force known as the London Metropolitan Police is an interesting study, and the occasion of the celebration of its centenary was a fitting time for a review of the force from its commencement on May 25, 182S. Parish Constables and Nightwatchmen Prior to that year the protection of life and property had been entrusted mainly to parish constables and nightwatchmen, who represented institutions of great antiquity, but were of little use in dealing with crime and disorder. In the eighteenth century, however, there came into being two1 organised bodies known as the Bow Street "runners" and the Marine or River Police, who were the forerunners of the modern police force. These two bodies were incorporated in the London Metropolitan Police in 1839. The Bow Street "runners" were under the control of the Chief Magistrate at Bow Street. They originated with Henry Fielding, the novelist, who became magistrate at the public office at Bow Street (now Bow Street Police Court) in 1748. They were a mere handful of men, eig'ht or ten in number, and they were the detectives of the period 1750 to 1839. The Bow Street Patrols mounted and foot (numbering at one time about 300) patrolled some of the main streets of London and the great roads of the metropolitan area to a distance of 16 miles from Charing Cross. The foot patrols were absorbed in the new police force in 1829, and the mounteds were taken over and became the mounted hranch of the Metropolitan Police 'in 1836. Need fop Efficient Service. During the period 1770 to 1828 there were several Parliamentary inquiries into the eihciency of parochial police and the appalling state of crime in the metropolis. These showed the urgent need for a new system of police, but it was not until Robert Peel became Home Secretary in 1822 that the matter was Taken up in earnest, and in April, 1829, he introduced to Parliament the Metropolitan Police Improvement Bill, which was to establish the Metropolitan Police and inaugurate the modern police system. The Bill was passed on May 25, 1829, and received the Royal assent in June. In July the Commissioners of Police were appointed and on the evening of Michaelmas Day, 1829, the first thousand of Metropolitan Police marched to their appointed beats, the vanguard of an army of peace through whose ranks nearly 120,000 men have since passed. The first Commissioner of Police was Colonel Rowan, C.B., afterwards Sir Charles Rowan, K.C.B., who had fought under Sir John Moore at Corunna . There have been in all eleven commissioners in the century. The new force met with a- good deal of hostility in their early days and were known by many nick-names, which were subsequently exchanged for the more friendly appellations of "Bobby" and "Peeler." The success of the new police force led to the establishment of other police forces on the same model throughout England and the British Dominions. In 1830 the strength of the force was just over 300. To-day its membership ap'proximates 20,000. Its first district was comparatively small, but in 1840 it was enlarged, its boundaries reaching into Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey. Peel's new police force was the first to be provided with a definite uniform. The original uniform was a blue swallow-tail coat with hlue trousers (white duck for summer), strapped over their boots, a leather tophat and a leather stock. The change to the hehnet, tunic and trousers as worn to-day was made in 1863-64. Whistles replaced rattles in 1885. The carrying of umbrellas was prohibited in 1859; and the wearing of beards, and of plain clothes when oft' duty permitted in 1869. Scotland Yard.

The plain clothes or detective branch of the Metropolitan Police, with which the name of Scotland Yard has been popularly associated, began in 1842, and has gtown from eight men to over 900. The New Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police. It is called "Scotland Yard" because, before its incorporation in. the Palace of Whitehall in the fifteenth century, it was the site of a palace for the residence °f Kings and Queens of Scotland when visiting the English Court. The move from Old Scotland Yard to the New Scotland Yard was made in 1890, and in 1927 a newer Scotland Yard was opened in Lambeth Road, which houses, among other departments, the recently formed "Flying Squad." The celebration of the centenary of the foundation of this force was celebrated in London with a parade at Hyde Park, before the Prince of Wales, and a march past Buckingham Palace, in which nearly 13,000 officers and men took part, including 55 superintendents, 515 inspectors, 1340 sergeants and 10,821 constables. The Service Band, the ReServe Band, the Pipe Band and the Special Constabu-

lary Band provided the music for this occasion. Important Events. During the one hundred years of its existence the Metropolitan Police , Force has been associated in many important events. The ColdbathJ Fields riots of 1883 was one" of these. In the "hungry forties" the police had an anxious time with the Chartists, but in London they were more of a bogey than a reality. On April 10, 1848, a large force was assembled for what The Times called "the" great field-day of the British Constitution," j and with the regular force there were ' also associated some 150,000' special constables and cavalry, and infantry and artillery were concealed in the neighbourhood of Westminster to repel an expected attach of the Chartists. The enemy's mustering ground was Kennington Common, but they made a scanty showing, and were dispersed by heavy, rain. The Fenian explosion at Clerkenwell in 1867 caused a great enlargement and general reorganisation of the force, and in 1882-85 the IrishAmerican dynamite compaign led to the formation of the Special Branch. The West End riot, which was known as "Black Monday," occurred in 1886, and in the following year there were prolonged disturbances on account of unemployment, culminating in "Bloody Sunday" on November 13, 1887. The "Jack the 'Ripper" scare was in 1888.