THE POLICE
See Also: CATS
Working Cats, Police Cat; CLUBLAND The Reform Club, P.C. Johnson; COURTS;
CRIME; DETECTIVE FICTION; FORENSICS; FREEMASONRY Freemasons and The Police; THE HAIRIES; SHERLOCK HOLMES; LOCAL GOVERNMENT Vestries;
TRAFALGAR SQUARE Trafalgar Square Police Station
Website:
www.police.uk
The City of London Police
The City of
London had a system of watchmen and constables that dated from medieval
times. The arrangement's shortcomings
were exposed by the Gordon Riots of 1780.
Four years later the City of London Day Police was established. The force's members wore blue uniforms; Jonas
Hanway suggested the colour, arguing that it was both sober and dignified.1 In 1839 the City of London Police force was
established under an Act of Parliament.
The
Commissioner of the City of London Police is appointed by the Lord Mayor, the
Aldermen, and the Common Council of the City of London. Their choice is subject to approval by the
Home Secretary.
Location:
37 Wood Street, EC2P 2NQ (blue, grey)
See Also:
THE BANK OF ENGLAND The Bank of England Picket; THE CITY OF LONDON The Impact
of The Great Fire Upon The Government of The City of London; COURTS The Old
Bailey
Website:
www.cityoflondon.police.uk
1. When
the Metropolitan Police force was created in 1829 it too adopted a blue
uniform. In part, the colour was chosen
because it was free of military connotations.
The Metropolitan Police
Art Theft
See Also:
CRIME Art Forgery; GALLERIES; ROBBERY; THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME
The
Metropolitan Black Police Association
The Black
Police Association was founded in 1994 by a group of fifteen or so officers who
had been contemporaries at Hendon Police College. Its members played the central role in
developing community trust in Peckham to enable witnesses to come forward to
give information about the murder of Damilola Taylor, which happened in 2000.
Website:
www.metbpa.org.uk
Norwell
Roberts
Norwell
Roberts (n Gumbs) had been nine-years old when he had arrived in
Britain from Anguila. Initially, he and
his mother settled in Bromley, where he experienced racism. Subsequently, they moved to Camden Town and he
attended Haverstock School, where he did not experience racism. While working as a lab technician he noticed
an advertisement that stated that the Metropolitan Police was recruiting police
officers. He had relatives in the
Caribbean who had been police officers.
He applied in a light-hearted manner, being aware that he never seen any
Black police officers in Britain. In
1967 he became the first Black person to become a serving officer in the
Metropolitan Police. During his service
he experienced considerable racism from fellow police officers, however, the
general public to be much less so. He
went on to work in C.I.D.. While a few
Black people regarded him as a form of traitor, the overwhelming response was
positive. In 1996 he was awarded the
Queen's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, the following year he retired.
Controversial
Coppers
In 2001 the
Metropolitan Police suspended Superintendent Ali Dizaei, an Iranian-born
officer, accusing him of a series of offences.
Following a £7m investigation, he was cleared of all of the offences. In 2010 Dr Dazaei was sentenced to serve four
years in prison.
The
Real Inspector Truscott
The character
of Inspector Truscott in Joe Orton's play Loot was inspired by Harry
Challenor (1922-2008), an's.A.S. soldier turned Soho copper. He developed a reputation for planting
evidence on suspects but was caught out when he claimed that he had found half
of a brick on the cartoonist Donald Rooum.
Mr Rooum was a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties and
there had been no brick dust in any of his pockets. Challenor collapsed into severe paranoid
schizophrenia. After many years of
treatment, he recovered and was able to work as a solicitors clerk.
Corruption
From 1969 to
1972 H.M. Inspector of Constabulary Frank Williamson conducted an investigation
of corruption within the Met. For a
period Williamson worked out of the West London offices of Release, an
organisation that provided legal advice for people who had been arrested on
narcotics charges. Rufus Harris
(1946-2007), one of Release's founders, conducted some interviews on
Williamson's behalf. The investigation s
findings informed the reforms that occurred under Sir Robert Mark.
Detective
Chief Superintendent Alfred Moody was one of the Obscene Publications Squad
officers who was jailed for conducting corrupt relations with Soho
pornographers.
Diplomatic
Patrol Group
Diplomatic
Patrol Group is a department of the Met.
They used to be the only regular police that were armed all the time.
Its liveried
vehicles are painted red.
See Also:
EMBASSIES; HIGH COMMISSIONS
Website:
www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/metropolitan-police/policies/diplomats-policy
Doing The
Right Thing
Between being
offered a job with the Met and joining up, Leroy Logan's father was assaulted
by police officers. The force admitted
its liability and compensated him. In
2000 Logan fils was awarded an M.B.E..
He took his father to the conferral ceremony at Buckingham Palace. As they left, Logan p re remarked I
suppose you did the right thing.
Fingerprints
In 1880 the
physician Henry Faulds wrote to Charles Darwin to ask him for help with regard
to fingerprints. The naturalist passed
the project onto his cousin Francis Galton who embraced it. He developed the terminology.
The artists
supplies firm Winsor & Newton makes the finger print ink for the Met.
Website:
www.met.police.uk/rqo/request/fp/af/your-fingerprints
Hendon
Police College
Lord
Trenchard established Hendon with the intention of creating an elite group of
constables who would be drawn from the universities and public schools. Concerns were voiced that it seemed to have
been established in order to instil the military ideas of an officer. It became known publicly that trainees were
required to include in their kit dinner jackets, four dress shirts, and patent
leather evening shoes. This led to the
college being subjected to ridicule.
Location:
Peel Centre, Aerodrome Road, NW9 5JE
Website:
www.college.police.uk
Kettling
Peter Tank
Waddington (1947-2018) was a police officer turned academic sociologist who had
a research interest in public demonstrations and events. His experience of being caught up in the
anti-poll tax riot led him to devise the technique of kettling as an
alternative to dispersal. This involved
using large numbers of police to coral those protestors who seemed to be
violent or non-compliant. They would be
kept confined without water, food, or lavatory facilities until they were
judged to no longer pose a threat to the public peace. In 1995 it was used for the first time during
a disabilities rights demonstration that was held in Parliament Square. In 2009 it became a matter of public concern
after a bystander died after being struck by a police officer during the G20
protests. A case was launched in the
European Court of Human Rights that challenged the technique's legality. In 2012 the court ruled that it was legal.
See Also:
RIOTS
New
Scotland Yard
Norman Shaw
designed the New Scotland Yard building (1890).1 The Met's senior officers were accommodated
in offices on the lower floors. The more
junior a policeman was the more flights of stairs he had to climb.
Joseph
Simpson became the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1958. He was the first person to be appointed to
the position who had started his policing career in the force's ranks.
In 1967 the
Met moved to a new New Scotland Yard building on a site that lies between
Victoria Street and Broadway. The
complex's entrance features a rotating triangle. This is reputed to be known as The Whirling
Toblerone . It was designed by Edward
Wright. He was a Modernist who was a
member of the Independent Group. It
revolves 14,000 times every day.
In 2012 the
Met announced that it was going to sell its New Scotland Yard building.
Location:
8-10 Broadway, SW1H 0BG (orange, blue)
The Norman
Shaw Buildings, Victoria Embankment, SW1A 2HZ (red, pink)
New Scotland
Yard, Victoria Embankment, SW1A 2JL (red, grey)
Website:
www.met.police.uk
1.
Originally, the site had been intended to accommodate an opera house. However, the cost of sinking foundations into
ground only recently claimed from the Thames had proved too great and the
project had foundered.
The River
Police
The Marine
Support Unit polices the Thames from Hampton Court to Dartford Creek.
Patrick
Colquhoun (d.1820) was a Glaswegian who had precocious success as a tobacco
merchant. He became one of his native
city's leading figures. As he did so, he
developed a reputation for being bumptious.
The American War of Independence subjected Glasgow to severe economic
strains. Colquhoun took it upon himself
to travel to London to lobby Parliament and the government for ameliorating
measures. Following the re-establishment
of peace, it emerged that there had been a permanent shift in the tobacco trade
away from the Clyde. Colquhoun s
business was no longer viable. He
responded to this situation by moving to London in order to try to become a
professional lobbyist.
At the time,
the government's management of Scottish politics was handled by the Home
Secretary Henry Dundas. He judged
Colquhoun to be someone of consequence and so secured for him an appointment as
one of London's stipendiary magistrates.
The former merchant was based in Shoreditch. There, he threw himself into his new
profession. He developed a programme of
social policy that was intended to reduce crime; it was derivative in
character. Dundas came to appreciate
that the magistrate had both an inflated concept of his own abilities and
little real understanding of the complexity of the societal matters in which he
was seeking to meddle. The Home
Secretary stopped accepting Colquhoun's requests that they should meet. The magistrate's response to this development
was to publish his proposed scheme in a pamphlet. The anonymous Treatise on The Police of
The Metropolis (1796) found a receptive audience. The author soon made his identity publicly
known and garnered the kudos that the publication had engendered.
John Harriott
aspired to be a gentleman and had several children to provide for. He had tried to establish himself in a
succession of careers. Each attempt had
failed. In 1797 one of his uncles, who
was an influential insurance underwriter, secured for him an appointment as a
stipendiary magistrate. The office was
based in Shadwell. Merchant vessels that
were waiting to unload their goods were anchored on the Thames. The scale of thefts from these was an
industry in itself. In his new position
Harriot was exposed to the problem on a daily basis. He drew up a plan for forming a police force
that would operate upon the river.
However, he was largely unknown and so was unable to persuade anyone in
authority or of consequence to take the scheme seriously.
Harriott took
the idea to his fellow magistrate Colquhoun.
The latter saw the potential that it possessed. As a former transatlantic merchant himself,
he was able to persuade a body of West Indian merchants that they should
consider it. This they did. They appreciated that it might benefit them
materially. They controlled one of the
largest groupings within the House of Commons.
Therefore, the Thames Police Act was soon enacted. The merchants paid the lion's share of the
new force's running costs. The
government also provided some funds.
With this done, Colquhoun chose to return to his social policy concerns
although these were no longer so focussed on reducing criminality as they had
been before. Harriot assumed the command
of the new force. His conduct in office
was not without a degree of controversy.
He sometimes failed to observe a proper demarcation between the private
and the official aspects of his life.
The force was
based at Wapping Police Station.
Subsequently, stations were established at Blackwall and Waterloo. In 1839 the Marine Police became the
Metropolitan Police's Thames Division.
In the 1880s the Division was equipped with steamboats. In 1910 it acquired its first motor
boat. In 1925 it stopped using rowing
boats. In 2001 the Division's name was
changed to the Marine Support Unit.
Location:
Wapping Police Station, 98-102 Wapping High Street, E1W 2NE (red, pink)
See Also:
COURTS Magistrates Courts; THE DOCKS The Walled Docks; SNUFF; THE THAMES;
TRADING COMPANIES
Website:
www.police.uk/pu/your-area/metrpolitan-police-service/river
The
River Police Museum
The River
Police Museum is open by private appointment.
Website:
www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk
S.O.14
The officers
of's.O.14 have particular names for their royal charges. Queen Elizabeth II is known as the Purple
One.
It has been
claimed that at least one of Prince Charles's sons was spotted in the Leigh
Delamere Motorways Services queuing with military colleagues in military
fatigues. He is supposed to have been
accompanied by his accompanied by a man who was taken to be bodyguard. The fellow was dressed in a suit.
The
Special Branch
A wave of
Fennian terrorism in the early 1880s led to the setting up of the Special Irish
Branch in 1883. Subsequently, the unit
was renamed the Special Branch.
See Also:
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS The Members Lobby; M.I.5; SPYING The Crown &
Woolpack
Website:
www.counterterrorism.police.uk
'Manhunter'
Warren
Edward Palmer
(1840-1882) was a gifted linguist who had been appointed the Professor of
Arabic at the University of Cambridge.
In 1882 he led a covert mission in The Sinai that sought to bribe the
local tribes to be neutral in the ongoing Anglo-Turkish dispute. The local tribes were pro-Ottoman and he was
easily caught and then killed. Colonel
Charles Warren of the Royal Engineers led the expedition to discover what had
happened to Palmer. He found out and
subsequently wrote a book that was entitled Manhunting In The Sinai,
which systematically disparaged the academic.
The book enjoyed large sales and Parliament subsequently had him
appointed to be the Commissioner. It was
during his time in office that the force mounted its investigation into Jack
the Ripper. During the First World War
Lawrence of Arabia was to manage to use the same tribes against the Ottman
Empire.
Whistles
The police
used wooden rattles to try to summon colleagues to an incident. In 1883 the Met held a contest to find some
alternative means. Whistles had
long-existed as a children's toy. Joseph
Hudson improved them markedly. 21,000
were ordered first-off. Whistleblower
became a term. Whistles were still being
used in 1970s.
Website:
www.acmewhistles.co.uk/whistles-accessories/acme-classics/metropolitan-police-whistle
Peelers
In 1829 the
Metropolitan Police Force (the Met) was legislated into existence at the behest
of the Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel.
The Force's commissioners established their premises at No. 4 Whitehall
Place. At the back of the building, in
Great Scotland Yard, was the first police station. It occupied what had been the servants
quarters. Peel said it was not to be a
job for gentlemen - he meant that they would not be able to buy positions, as
in the Army. The Tories lost power in
1830. In the wake of the Peterloo
Massacre (1819), the Whigs had been calling for something to be done but were
not keen on what had been done.
Melbourne, the incoming Home Secretary, was hostile towards the new
body.
During their
early years the police were deeply unpopular.
In part there was resistance to the idea of policing because it was
regarded as being a French idea. The
political radical William Cobbett termed it a wicked French innovation. An early name for policemen was Jenny Darby
(gendarme). In 1833 Robert Culley, an
unarmed officer, died as a result of having been stabbed during a disturbance
that had broken out at Clerkenwell Green.
At the coroner's inquest into his death, the jury brought in a verdict
of justifiable homicide because the force's conduct had been ferocious,
brutal, unprovoked by the people . At
the subsequent funeral a crowd heckled the parading policemen. Of the 2800 constables who were employed by
Met in 1830 only 562 were still with the force four years later. However, the Met went on to prove its
worth. The government felt able to
encourage the creation of local constabularies throughout Britain.
Location:
4 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2HB (red, brown)
See Also:
EMBASSIES & LEGATIONS, DISAPPEARED Scotland Yard
The White Blue Light
Prince Albert
died in Windsor Castle's Blue Room.
Therefore, Queen Victoria asked for Bow Street police station's blue
light to be made white.
In 1992
Covent Garden Police Station closed. The
Magistrates Court continued to function until 2006. In 2020 it was announced that the 1881
building was to become the Bow Street Police Museum.
See Also:
LIGHTING
David
Backhouse 2024