Early policing

The statute of Winchester 1285 laid down a policing system-much of it borrowed from Saxon times - in which:

1) the responsibility for law and order rested with each citizen;

2) in each town, the citizens had to be prepared to act as watchmen at night;

3) the constable for the year would be responsible for detaining wrongdoers and bringing them before the court;

4) failure to take part on watch was punishable as a criminal offence;

5) every citizen had not only the right to arrest wrongdoers, but the duty to do so.

In 1600 the population of England and Wales was about 4,000. In 1760 there was only one really large city, London, with about a million. As London was the largest city, it was there that the inadequacies of policing first became most obvious.

King George [I urged Parliament to consider seriously of some effectual Provision to suppress Crimes of Robbery and Violence, which are now become frequent, especially about this great Capital.

Riots occurred as a result of differences of opinion about religion, food prices, election and politics.

Some attempts were made to improve the policing of London. Henry Fielding, the novelist, became Chief Magistrate in 1748 at Bow Street. He also, later with his half- brother John, who took the office on the death of Henry in 1754, instituted patrols to catch criminals.

The practical work the Fieldings did was probably less important than the ideas they promulgated during years of active campaigning. These ideas contributed to an attempt by William Pitt, Prime Minister in 1785, to set up a police force in London.

In 1792, the Middlesex justices Act provided seven centers for magistrates, with six constables at each. These constables were paid. Although, since 1737, some watchmen had been employed during the day as well as night, they were very poorly paid.

The only measure taken to combat crime on a national scale was the introduction of the death penalty for more and more offences. New capital offences were created at a rate of about one a year until, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were 223 offences carrying the death penalty. They included sheep stealing theft from the person of goods of any value, and shoplifting to the value of five shillings.

In 1798 a full - time police force to patrol the Thames was set up. This private police force became in 1800 the first 'modern' professional police force in London. Bow Street became the center of a revised patrol system in 1805, aimed at highwaymen on the outskirts of London and this was extended to the suburbs in 1827.

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