A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their PreventionColquhoun, Patrick
History
A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention
Colquhoun, Patrick
Crime -- England -- London; Police -- England -- London
"That it is the opinion of this Society, that great benefits have
arisen, with regard to the security of property, from the correct and
regular manner in which the judicial business has been conducted by
the Magistrates of Police; in consequence of whose vigilance and
attention, an effectual check has been given to a System of
depredation which heretofore occasioned a loss of many thousands per
annum to the Silk Manufacturers:"--And it was Resolved,--"That the
Thanks of this Society are due to the Right Honourable Henry Dundas,
one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and also to Mr.
Burton, and the other Members of Parliament, who proposed and
supported the Police System, for the share they had in the
establishment of a judicial Tribunal, which has been found to extend,
to the Silk Manufacturers, many advantages in a just and proper
execution of the Laws which were not heretofore experienced."]
But with all these advantages, even improved by competent funds
appropriated to the different Public Offices, still a _Centre-point_
is wanted to connect the whole together, so as to invigorate and
strengthen every part, by a superintending Establishment, under the
immediate controul of the Secretary of State for the Home Department:
There, indeed, the constitutional superintendence of the Police of the
Metropolis, as well as of the whole country, rests at present; but
from the vast weight and increase of other Public Business, connected
with the general affairs of the State, foreign, colonial, and
domestic, it has been found impracticable to pursue that particular
System which has now become, more than ever, necessary for the
detection of criminals. It seems then, that in executing a task so
complicated and multifarious, a delegation of subordinate _Responsible
Management_ to a _Central Board of Police_ should be resorted to: as
the only means of giving strength, vigour, and energy to a System,
heretofore only partially useful; and which, in its present disjointed
state, is incapable of extending that Protection and Security, which
has been shewn in the course of this Work, to be so much wanted, and
so indispensably necessary.
To understand the Police of the Metropolis to that extent which is
necessary to direct and superintend its general operations, it must be
acted upon _practically_; and those who undertake the _superintendence_
and _management_ alluded to, must be men _able_, _intelligent_,
_prudent_, and _indefatigable_: devoting their whole attention to this
object alone. Clerks might be continually employed with great
advantage in entering and posting up under the proper heads, such new
information as should be obtained from day to day; and hours should be
appointed for receiving such intelligence from all proper and
well-informed persons, who might choose to offer the same; so far as
such information related to Public wrongs, and offences against the
peace, safety, and well-being of Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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