The Metropolitan Police Force was set-up primarily to replace the watchmen and parish constables that patrolled the streets of London keeping and eye out for trouble and trying whenever possible tried to prevent crimes such as robberies and large disturbances. (Before the Metropolitan was set-up) The Metropolitan Police Force was really just to replace the smaller police forces and keep law and order.
Many people saw the police as Defenders of order. However many people from working class background saw the police in a bad light, police frequently went on the beat armed with cutlasses. In fact the rates of attacks on police officers were so high in some areas that police officers were afraid to patrol these area on their own.
Police officers received very little training before going out on the beat, most officers just had to be able to read and write. Much of the time before they went out on the beat was taken up with learning military drill. Great emphasis was put on personal appearance and good behaviour. Working conditions were very hard, officers often had to spend up to fourteen hours a day seven days a week walking their allocated beats on the streets of London. During the daytime officers had to walk about seven and a half miles without a break.
However the police force did have to deal with many cases of drunkenness and petty theft, which were common in 19th century London. As well as dealing with the common crimes, the police also got involved in controlling public demonstrations. They often used batons to control the crowd and soon got a reputation for being heavy handed, after a baton charge at a demonstration in Bromley in 1868, resulted in a seventy-eight year old man being trampled to death.
Crime during nineteenth century England was redesigned, there were new types of crime happening for example garrotting, it was a violent mugging that often lead to the murder of the victim. The result of overcrowded markets, deprivation, poverty, and a growing difference between the rich and poor was the creation of new kinds of crime. As London approached the 1840's crime increased to new heights and it was the job of the Metropolitan Police Force to deal with it. The Metropolitan had to deal with crimes such as pick pocketing, garrotting, muggings, and robberies, and murders such as poisonings.
Pick pocketing was a very popular crime that was committed. The criminals committing this crime were often by children around the age of five. The children walked through crowded markets and squares where they were not seen, and picked valuables out of people pockets. Because theses children were so small and light, they did not get caught and often got away from the victim without them realising. The Metropolitan Police could not really do anything to stop this crime, it was happening at such a high rate.
Another popular type of murder that the Metropolitan Police had to deal with was poisonings. Poison was quite a popular weapon for murders because it was cheap, and easy to get. Arsenic was a popular poison used, it was meant to be rat poison, but if there was a big enough concentration of arsenic then it most defiantly had the strength to kill some one. Another reason that poisons were used as murder weapons was because it was undetectable. Doctors did not have a clue whether the person had been poisoned or had died from natural causes.
The Metropolitan also had to deal with murders and muggings such as garrotting. Garrotting was a new, slow and painful way of killing people by strangulation and cutting of their air supply. This new type of crime was very violent. It was usually carried out by two or three people who grabbed a victim from behind, and strangled him while the other person, or people went through the victim’s pockets searching for valuables. This type of violent crime usually took place in dark back alleys or very late at night when no one was around. The Metropolitan could not arrest anybody for this crime, unless the attackers were caught in the act. This is because the police in the late 19th century had not yet realised the importance of evidence.
The Metropolitan also were involved in controlling public demonstrations. They often used batons to control the crowd and soon got a reputation for being heavy handed, after a baton charge at a demonstration in Bromley in 1868, resulted in a seventy-eight year old man being trampled to death.
In 1842 after a lot of debating it was agreed, and detectives were introduced to the Metropolitan Police Force, they were known as the Detective Department. It was debated that the public could not identify the new detectives, who were dressed in normal clothes. There was also the fear that the new detectives would become to friendly with criminals and therefore become corrupt. One advantage that was gained by the idea of having detectives in the Metropolitan was the new way of investigating a crime scene. Photographs of the scene were taken and sent off to Scotland Yard to be analysed. In 1862 photos of criminals were taken in prison, then sent to Scotland Yard where they formed the ‘Rogues Gallery’. The photos were taken because police believed it was possible to identify criminal ‘types’ from the shape of their heads.
However in 1877, it was found that almost three out of four detectives were found guilty of corruption.
In 1878 the Detective Department was scraped, and reorganised, and the Criminal Intelligence Department was set up (CID). This reorganisation led to a great many improvements that would benefit the war against crime.
Detective methods slowly developed with the introduction of forensic science. The police then learnt the importance of fingerprints and footprints and how this could prove whether a certain person had been at the scene of the crime. The use of forensic science could also prove whether the blood on someone’s shirt was human blood or sheep blood. This became very handy because there was a lot of slaughterhouse in London and especially in the Whitechapel area. The best example of how forensic science was used is when John Toms was convicted of murder in 1884 because the torn paper he used for his pistol wadding was the same as that found in the head wound of his victim.
Even though The Metropolitan Police Force improved greatly in the late nineteenth century, however we must realise that back in the 19th century they did not have the technology that we have today, such as DNA testing, and there were many other investigating techniques that were yet to be discovered. Apart from this I think that the Law and Order in London during the late 19th century was very good. It was very well organised and structured and was set to a decent standard. The Metropolitan Police Force were successful in keeping the Law and order in London low because soon after the Metropolitan Police Force was established the “sky high” crime rates started to decline (street crime), but the amount of burglaries stayed the same. The Metropolitan were also responsible for the more “orderly” streets that were achieved and maintained during the second half of the nineteenth century. Another reason that the Metropolitan Police Force were so successful in keeping Law and Order in London is because they are the oldest police force in Britain and are still around patrolling the streets of London.
