Crime

This list of crimes and criminals was recorded in London in 1837. The figures are not very accurate because many crimes went unrecorded, but they indicate some of the felonies that were often committed.

• 4,500 thefts and robberies
• 2,700 disturbances of the peace, brawls, etc
• 800 pick-pocketing offences
• 1,000 vagrants, tramps, travelling and homeless people
• 400 frauds, con-men and street criminals
• 5,800 prostitutes

Sir Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel was Home Secretary from 1822-27 and 1828-30. He revolutionised law enforcement in Britain by organising a uniformed group of men to patrol the streets of London in 1829 and prevent crime. He had already organised a similar force in Ireland when he was Chief Secretary there from 1812 to 1818. This was the first real police force. An Act in 1814 established a local police force.

Peel believed that people should be deterred from committing crime by the fear of being caught rather than the fear of punishment. This system of preventative policing is still followed today. Policing is about preventing crime taking place and taking action after a crime has been committed. Police officers are expected to know their area and the people who live there and to be aware of potential crime situations. Today, the police operate three services:

• Preventative policing by patrolling officers
• Response policing when police officers are called to an incident or crime
• Detective policing, after a crime has been committed, attempting to identify the offender.

Objectives of the Police 1829

"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 tranquillity, 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."

Sir Richard Mayne,
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, 1829.

Is this statement still relevant to today's police force?

The way it was

The County of Lancaster Constabulary Force laid down a number of rules for constables in the late nineteenth century. These included the following instructions:

• Constables are placed in authority to PROTECT, not to OPPRESS the PUBLIC.
• Be COOL and INTREPID in the discharge of duties in emergencies and unavoidable conflicts.
• Be perfectly neat and clean in Person and Attire.
• Never sit down in a PUBLIC HOUSE or BEER SHOP.
• AVOID TIPPLING.
• It is in the interest of every man to devote some portion of his spare time to the practice of READING and WRITING and the general improvement of his mind. Ignorance is an insuperable bar to promotion.

Early Detectives

The logic behind creating a force of detectives was to allow police officers to mingle with the public and gather intelligence. In this way, they could collect information to prevent crime and apprehend criminals.

Undercover officers worked in the streets in the 1830s.

n 1840, divisions were told to select men who would work on individual cases rather than patrol a beat. These men wore their own clothes so they were not easily identifiable; they were the first plain-clothes detectives.

It soon became obvious that these detectives were producing results in preventing and solving crime. A more co-ordinated force was needed. The detective branch of the Metropolitan Police in London was founded in 1842 and the Detective Branch was first stationed in a house at the back of a small square. The name of that square has become synonymous with detection and solving crime - it was Scotland Yard.

Jack the Ripper

During 1888, the mutilated bodies of five prostitutes were found in Whitechapel, East London. The public were afraid and demanded action. A petition was sent to Queen Victoria and as a result pressure was brought to bear on the Home Secretary. More than 600 police officers were brought in to patrol the area but found no trace of the murderer.

The murders stopped very suddenly and the crimes were never solved. Researchers still speculate as to the identity of Jack the Ripper. At one time, a popular suspect was the Duke of Clarence, a grandson of Queen Victoria.

It is possible that the murderer was one of the many suspects, a man called Montague John Druitt, a teacher at a school in Blackheath. He lived near the City of London during the time some of the murders were committed. He committed suicide in December 1888 - shortly after the last victim of the Ripper was found.

Truncheons

The truncheons used by the first official police force in 1829 were about twenty inches long and were carried in the tail of an officer's coat. In 1887, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force ordered policemen to carry their truncheons in a specially adapted trouser pocket so they would be less conspicuous! Through the years, the design of truncheons has been modified. Some were made of wood, others made of iron. The use of truncheons is strictly controlled. Officers should only use them when all other methods of subduing a prisoner have failed and the prisoner may escape or hurt the arresting officer.

The Second World War

Police around the country faced a massive task during the Second World War. Not only did they have to prevent and detect crime, they were also heavily involved in civil defence work dealing with the threat and aftermath of bombing raids.

The police supervised the National Registration Scheme. Everyone had to carry an identity card which the police could demand to see at any time. Rationing and general shortages of food and consumer goods meant that theft and trading on the black market were a problem. There was also the risk of looting from damaged buildings. All this increased the workload of the police and extra officers were drafted in. This was the beginning of Mutual Aid at heavily bombed areas. Thousands of civilians became Special Constables, Police War Reserve Officers and Women Auxiliary Police Corps members. The war years changed attitudes towards women officers and many stayed on afterwards and joined the regular force. Many officers also joined the armed forces.