The history of the Metropolitan Police in London is long and complex, with many different events taking place between its inception in 1829 and the present day.
Pre-1829 London policing
Before the passing of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, law enforcement among the general population in England was carried out by unpaid parish constables who were elected, and later appointed by the local justice of the peace. In certain circumstances, such as serious public disorder, the army would intervene to support the local authorities; yeomanry were extensively used for this purpose before police forces developed. Because this system of policing was largely unorganised and lacked a criminal investigation capability, the novelist Henry Fielding (who had been appointed a Magistrate in 1748) introduced the first detective force, known as the Bow Street Runners, in 1753. Fielding's house at 4 Bow Street had been established as a courtroom by the previous owner, in 1739.
Fielding's force was made up of eight constables who also investigated crimes handed over to them by the volunteer constables and watchmen. Runners were identified by carrying a tipstaff with the Royal Crown on it, which had a compartment inside to store official identification and documents. In 1805 the Bow Street Horse Patrol, the first form of uniformed policing seen in the capital, was established alongside the Runners, later amalgamating into the Metropolitan Police in 1837. Unofficial "thief-takers" operated independently from the Bow Street Runners, being employed by fee-paying members of the public to catch criminals and present them before a magistrate.
By 1798, the year the Marine Police Force was established, salaried constables were being paid by local magistrates. The Marine Police was initially made up of 220 Constables assisted by 1,000 registered dock workers, and was responsible for preventing the theft of cargo on and around the River Thames. The London Marine Police Force is widely regarded as being the first modern police force in the world, in the sense that they were not government controlled and were responsible for the prevention of crime. In its first year of operation 2,000 offenders were found guilty of theft from the docks. This success led to the enacting of the Marine Police Bill, which made it the first publicly funded preventive police force in the history of English policing.
The new police
During the late-18th and early-19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution witnessed an exponential expansion in London's size and economic importance. It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" lacked organisation and efficiency in the deterrence, detection and prevention of crime. As a result, a parliamentary committee was appointed to investigate the current system of policing. Upon Sir Robert Peel being appointed as Home Secretary in 1822, he established a second and more effective committee, and acted upon its findings. As Chief Secretary for Ireland in the British Cabinet from 1812 to 1818, Sir Robert had previously reformed policing in Ireland. Believing in standardising policing by making it an official paid profession, by organising it in a civilian fashion, and by making it answerable to the public, Peel put a bill before Parliament, which passed as the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, given royal assent on 19 June 1829. The Act placed policing arrangements for the capital directly under the control of Sir Robert Peel.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne were appointed the new force's first Commissioners, and "Commissioner" has remained the Metropolitan Police's highest rank, unlike in other modern British police forces, which come under Chief Constables. The two Commissioners' original headquarters was near Government, at 4 Whitehall Place, with a back entrance on Great Scotland Yard. "Scotland Yard" soon became established as a name for the force itself. Once formed, the force became the third official non-paramilitary city police-force in the world, after the City of Glasgow Police and the Paris Police. Due to public fears concerning the deployment of the military in domestic matters, Robert Peel organised the force along civilian lines, rather than paramilitary ones. To appear neutral, the uniform was deliberately manufactured in blue, rather than red which was then a military colour, along with the officers being armed only with a wooden truncheon and a rattle to signal the need for assistance. Until 1864, police officers also wore top hats to complete the civilian look. Along with this, police ranks did not include military titles, with the exception of "Sergeant".Taylor, J. "The Victorian Police Rattle Mystery"/ The Constabulary (2003) The original standard wage for a Constable was one guinea (£1.05) a week. Recruitment criteria required applicants to be under the age of 35, in good health, and to be at least tall. Working shifts lasted 12 hours, 6 days a week, with Sunday as a rest day. Until 1897, Metropolitan Police officers did not receive a boot allowance.
The civilian ethos also meant that the force did not routinely carry firearms, although Sir Robert Peel authorised the Commissioners to purchase fifty flintlock pocket-pistols for use in exceptional circumstances, such as those which involved the use of firearms. At the time, burglary (or "house breaking" as it was then called) was a common problem for police, and "house breakers" usually carried arms. It was then also legal (under the Bill of Rights 1689) for the Protestant-majority members of the public to own and use firearms.English Bill of Rights 1689
19th century
1829-1838 Metropolitan Police patrols took to the streets on 29 September 1829, despite resistance from certain elements of the community who saw them to be a threat to civil liberties. The initial force consisted of two Commissioners, eight Superintendents, 20 Inspectors, 88 Sergeants and 895 Constables. Patrolling the streets within a seven-mile (11 km) radius of Charing Cross, in order to prevent crime and pursue offenders.
Between 1829 and 1830, 17 local divisions each with a central police station were established, with each division assigned a letter."Districts" and "Division" in Martin Fido and Keith Skinner, The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard (Virgin Publishing: London, 1999), pages 70-71 These divisions were:
On 28 June 1830, Constable Joseph Grantham became the first member of the force to die (from a stroke) while on duty. The Coroner's Inquest as described the assault on the officer as "justifiable homicide". Other indications of the Constabulary's unpopularity of the time were such nicknames as 'Raw Lobsters', 'Blue Devils' and 'Peel's Bloody Gang'. Officers were physically assaulted, blinded, and on one occasion held down while a vehicle was driven over them.
1839-1859 In 1840, as a result of the second Metropolitan Police Act the previous year, the MPD was expanded to a 15-mile radius from Charing Cross, the Foot Patrol, the Horse Patrol and the River Police were amalgamated with the Metropolitan Police (the last of the three as Thames Division), and the Bow Street Runners were disbanded (with its personnel moved to the Metropolitan Police). Peel had hoped the Met might also incorporate the City of London but another 1839 Act confirmed an independent City of London Police (CoLP), which survives until this day. The River Police was renamed Thames Division, expanding from its origins in London's commercial docks to cover the whole section of the River Thames within the MPD - this included the stretch along the south bank of the City of London (since CoLP did not maintain its own river police) and originally stretched from Brentford to Blackwall before later being extended eastwards to the Thames-Darent confluence.
The Metropolitan Police was formed without detectives since that role had previously been undertaken by the Runners, but in 1842 it formed a new investigative force named the "Detective Branch". It initially consisted of two Inspectors, six Sergeants and a number of Constables."Police" in Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (1983) The London Encyclopedia: 605–9 One of its first cases was the Bermondsey Horror of 1849, in which a married couple murdered Patrick O'Connor and buried his body under the kitchen floor. After going on the run they were tracked down by Detective Sergeants Thornton and Langley and publicly hanged outside Horsemonger Gaol in Southwark.Paul Begg and Keith Skinner (1993) The Scotland Yard Files: 40–2
One of the Metropolitan Police's priorities from the outset was maintaining public order, particularly the Chartist demonstrations in 1839, 1842 and 1848. Sixty Met officers were also dispatched to Birmingham in July of that year where they were involved in the suppression of Chartist meetings leading to the Bull Ring Riots. The Met was also supplemented for public order purposes by Special Constables, first introduced by the Special Constables Act 1831, empowering Magistrates to appoint ordinary citizens as temporary police officers in times of emergency. In 1834, the Act had been extended to allow citizens appointed as Specials to act outside of their Parish area. They proved particularly valuable against the final Chartist demonstrations in 1848, when 150,000 Specials were sworn in to assist regular officers in preventing Chartists from reaching Kennington and then marching to Westminster.
When Sir Charles Rowan died, another army officer, William Hay, was drafted in to jointly run the force with Mayne. However, tensions between them meant that on Hay's death in 1855 a new system of a single Commissioner and two Assistant Commissioners was established. In 1857 Matne was paid a salary of £1,883 (roughly equivalent to £191,100 in 2021), and his two Assistant Commissioners were paid salaries £800 each, approximately £81,190 in 2021.
1860–1899 In 1860, the Metropolitan Police also took on responsibility for the policing of the Royal Dockyards and other royal naval bases between 1860 until 1934, including Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport, Royal Naval Air Station Pembroke, and the Royal Woolwich Arsenal. It took some time to establish the standards of discipline expected today from a police force. In 1863, 215 officers were arrested for being intoxicated while on duty, In 1872 there was a police strike, and during 1877 three high ranking detectives were tried for corruption.Stewart Evans and Donald Rumbelow (2006) Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates: 19–20 Due to this latter scandal the Detective Branch was re-organised in 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent, and renamed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). This was separated from the uniformed branch, and its head had direct access to the Home Secretary, by-passing the Commissioner.