The Role Of The Metropolitan Police Force In The Late 19th Century

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The Metropolitan Police Force

In 1829, was the main turning point in policing. When Home secretary Sir Robert Peel set up the Metropolitan police Force. They had three vital duties. Prevent crime, solving crime and dealing with political protest (Riots).

The Metropolitan Police Force was nicknamed “Peelers” or “Bobbies”. They patrolled the streets keeping an eye out for trouble. One of their duties was to deal with drunkenness, vagrants, beggars and prostitutes. And tackling major disturbances such as riots was another. Preventing crime was probably the most important duty because if they could prevent crime, this would keep the streets in order. And they maintained the high level of presence on …show more content…

That is why they were so successful with preventing crime. Now we get on to solving crime. This wasn’t one of the Force’s strongest areas The Metropolitan Police Force didn’t use forensics or fingerprinting so they had no idea of who had committed a crime. They basically followed suspicious people. They had no reason to follow random people in London except if they looked suspicious but that didn’t help at all. The only way of being arrested is if you were caught in the act and that wasn’t likely. Crowds and riot control was well handed by the police. They use baton charge, this meant they charged into the crowd and hit people, the method they used was very effective. That way there was a lot more order on the streets. And that’s all that mattered. However Many citizens were very discontented with the method the Police used. That is because the baton charge killed and injured a lot of people that were involved in the riot over political protest and unemployment. Incidents such as these lead to the poorer people believing that the police favoured the rich over them, which in turn made policing in poorer areas much more

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