A History of Police in EnglandLee, W. L. Melville (William Lauriston Melville)
History
A History of Police in England
Lee, W. L. Melville (William Lauriston Melville)
Police -- England
Mounted--2 Inspectors, 4 deputy inspectors, 54 patrols.
Dismounted--4 Inspectors, 8 sub-inspectors, 89 patrols.
As was formerly the case, the horse patrol consisted of ex-cavalry
men, and they were dressed and accoutred in the following manner--
Blue double-breasted coat with gilt buttons, scarlet waistcoat,
leather stock, white leather gloves, black leather hat, Wellington
boots and steel spurs, whilst each man, when on duty, was furnished
with a pistol, sabre, truncheon and pair of handcuffs.
Only married men were employed, and cottages were provided for them at
convenient spots close to the roads they had to patrol, their wives
were forbidden to keep pigs or poultry, a wise prohibition designed to
secure to the government-horses their full allowance of forage.
The mounted and dismounted patrols worked in connection with each
other; the latter were responsible for the immediate neighbourhood of
London to a distance of five miles from its centre, and the former
looked after the remoter districts included in a circle with an average
radius of twenty miles; their principal routes were--to Enfield by
Hampstead and Highgate in the North, to Epsom by Croydon and Richmond
in the South, to Windsor by Uxbridge in the West, and Eastwards to
Romford on the left bank of the Thames, and towards Maidstone on the
right bank. Their orders were to proceed along the specified road
at such a pace as would bring them to the end of their beat at the
appointed time--halt ten minutes and then return meeting the other
patrolmen half-way; when passing travellers they were ordered to make
themselves known by calling out in an audible tone "Bow Street Patrol";
and on arriving at the home-end of their beat they were timed to
meet the dismounted patrol, and had to communicate to them any news
of importance. Every patrol, when on duty, was expected to be fully
equipped, with his pistol loaded, and his sword-belt outside his coat;
if his horse should go lame he had to dismount, and on foot patrol
half his usual distance; in the event of a robbery or other breach of
the peace coming to his notice, his duty was to join his companion,
if possible, and that of the two together to pursue and endeavour to
apprehend the offender or offenders, summoning outside assistance if
necessary. If they effected a capture their prisoner was to be safely
secured till morning, when they had to bring him to Bow Street.
The orders issued to the dismounted patrol, _mutatis mutandis_, were
practically identical with those already detailed: the men were warned
never to go out on their rounds without truncheon, cutlass and warrant;
and they had to meet the mounted patrol at the extremity of their beat,
or report the circumstances under which they failed to carry out their
instructions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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