Editing Police (section)

====Metropolitan====
[[File:A "Peeler" of the Metropolitan Police Service in the 1850s.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|An officer of the [[Metropolitan Police Service]] in the 1850s]]
London was fast reaching a size unprecedented in world history, due to the onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Kathryn Costello |url=http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vindust.html |title=Industrial Revolution |publisher=Nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501202603/http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vindust.html |archive-date=May 1, 2009 }}</ref> It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" was ineffective, both in detecting and preventing crime. A parliamentary committee was appointed to investigate the system of policing in [[London]]. Upon [[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel]] being appointed as [[Home Secretary]] in 1822, he established a second and more effective committee, and acted upon its findings.

[[Royal assent]] to the [[Metropolitan Police Act 1829]] was given<ref name="ndad">{{cite web |url=http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/AH/1/detail.html |title=The National Archives &#124; NDAD &#124; Metropolitan Police |publisher=Ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122044922/http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/AH/1/detail.html |archive-date=2008-11-22 }}</ref> and the [[Metropolitan Police Service]] was established on September 29, 1829, in [[London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://polis.osce.org/countries/details?item_id=73|title=Policing Profiles of Participating and Partner States|publisher=Polis |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203004148/http://polis.osce.org/countries/details?item_id=73|archive-date=2013-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Brief Guide to Police History  |url=http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/205/205lect04.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908151018/http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/205/205lect04.htm |archive-date=September 8, 2009 }}</ref> Peel, widely regarded as the father of modern policing,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Criminology_Basics/a/The-History-Of-Modern-Policing.htm|title=The History of Modern Policing: How the Modern Police Force Evolved|author=Timothy Roufa|access-date=30 November 2013|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203053215/http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Criminology_Basics/a/The-History-Of-Modern-Policing.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> was heavily influenced by the social and legal philosophy of [[Jeremy Bentham]], who called for a strong and centralised, but politically neutral, police force for the maintenance of social order, for the protection of people from crime and to act as a visible [[Preventive police|deterrent]] to urban [[crime]] and disorder.<ref name="brodeur284">{{cite book|last=Brodeur|first=Jean-Paul|editor1=Kevin R.E. McCormick|editor2=Livy A. Visano|chapter=High Policing and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities|title=Understanding Policing|publisher=Canadian Scholars' Press|year=1992|pages=[https://archive.org/details/understandingpol0000unse_o7k7/page/284 284–285, 295]|isbn=978-1-55130-005-4|ol=<!--OL-->1500609M|lccn=93178368|oclc=27072058|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/understandingpol0000unse_o7k7/page/284}}</ref> Peel decided to standardise the police force as an official paid profession, to organise it in a civilian fashion, and to make it answerable to the public.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.met.police.uk/history/timeline1829-1849.htm |title=Metropolitan Police Service – History of the Metropolitan Police Service |publisher=Met.police.uk |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426000459/http://www.met.police.uk/history/timeline1829-1849.htm |archive-date=2009-04-26 }}</ref>

[[File:Police group portrait Bury St Edmunds Suffolk England.jpg|thumb|Group portrait of policemen, [[Bury St Edmunds]], [[Suffolk]], [[England]], c. 1900|left]]
Due to public fears concerning the deployment of the military in domestic matters, Peel organised the force along civilian lines, rather than [[paramilitary]]. 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 [[Baton (law enforcement)|truncheon]] and a [[Ratchet (instrument)|rattle]]<ref>Taylor, J. [http://www.constabulary.com/mystery/rattle.htm "The Victorian Police Rattle Mystery"/] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218043036/http://www.constabulary.com/mystery/rattle.htm |date=February 18, 2010 }} ''The Constabulary'' (2003)</ref> to signal the need for assistance. Along with this, [[Police ranks of the United Kingdom|police ranks]] did not include military titles, with the exception of [[Sergeant#Police 7|Sergeant]].

To distance the new police force from the initial public view of it as a new tool of government repression, Peel publicised the so-called [[Peelian principles]], which set down basic guidelines for ethical policing:<ref>{{Cite web|last=The Committee Office, House of Commons|title=House of Commons – HC 1456 Home Affairs Committee: Written evidence submitted by the National Black Police Association (NBPA)|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmhaff/1456/1456vw07.htm|access-date=2020-06-14|website=publications.parliament.uk|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Lentz, Susan A.|author2=Chaires, Robert H.|year=2007|title=The Invention of Peel's Principles: A Study of Policing 'Textbook' History|journal=Journal of Criminal Justice|volume=35|issue=1|pages=69–79|doi=10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.11.016}}</ref>
* Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests but on the deterrence of crime.
* Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel's most often quoted principle that "The police are the public and the public are the police."

[[File:Pride London 39.jpg|thumb|upright|Metropolitan Police officers in 2019. The [[custodian helmet]] has been called "an iconic symbol of British policing".<ref>{{cite news |title=Police helmets to make a return to Bucks this year |url=https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/16085763.police-helmets-make-return-bucks-year/ |access-date=15 April 2023 |work=Bucks Free Press}}</ref>]]
The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 created a modern police force by limiting the purview of the force and its powers and envisioning it as merely an organ of the judicial system. Their job was apolitical; to maintain the peace and apprehend criminals for the courts to process according to the law.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYoJQVYwFB8C&q=bentham+on+policing|title=The Policing Web|author=Brodeur, Jean-Paul|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=2013-02-07|isbn=978-0-19-981331-5}}</ref> This was very different from the "[[Continental Europe|continental]] model" of the police force that had been developed in France, where the police force worked within the parameters of the [[absolute monarchy|absolutist state]] as an extension of the authority of the monarch and functioned as part of the governing state.

In 1863, the Metropolitan Police were issued with the distinctive [[custodian helmet]], and in 1884 they switched to the use of whistles that could be heard from much further away.<ref>{{cite news |title=Just how practical is a traditional Bobby's helmet? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-30932319 |access-date=15 April 2023 |agency=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thejanuarist.com/joseph-hudson-inventor-of-the-police-and-referee-whistles/|title=Joseph Hudson: Inventor of the Police and Referee Whistles|author=Dan Zambonini|date=October 24, 2009}}</ref> The Metropolitan Police became a model for the police forces in many countries, including the [[United States]] and most of the [[British Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Terrill|first1=Richard J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ3hCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|title=World Criminal Justice Systems: A Comparative Survey|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317228820|edition=revised|page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dempsey|first1=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4TCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|title=An Introduction to Policing|last2=Forst|first2=Linda S.|date=2015|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1305544680|edition=8th|pages=6–8}}</ref> Bobbies can still be found in many parts of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]].