History of law enforcement in the United Kingdom
The posse comitatus originated in ninth century England along with the creation of the office of sheriff.
It expanded the 1181 Assize of Arms by adding the system of watch and ward, and pointing the way forward to subsequent legislation along similar lines by Edward I and Henry IV.
[3][4] The Statute of Winchester 1285 was the primary piece of legislation that regulated the policing in the period after the Norman Conquest until the nineteenth century.
Of particular note was the requirement to raise hue and cry, and that "the whole hundred ... shall be answerable" for any theft or robbery, in effect a form of collective responsibility.
[5][6][7] During this period, law enforcement and policing were organised by local communities such as town authorities.
Sir Robert Peel, appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1812, found local magistrates and the Baronial Police unable to maintain law and order.
They were to preserve law and order on the construction site and to control movement of railway traffic by hand signals.
London in the early 1800s had a population of nearly a million and a half people but was policed by only 450 constables and 4,500 night watchmen.
[18] In 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act was passed by Parliament which required 178 Royal Boroughs to set up paid police forces.
It received the appellation Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867 after its success in suppressing the Fenian Rising.
[16] Chief Constable Captain Athelstan Popkess is credited with being largely responsible for transforming the British Police Service from its Victorian era 'beat policing' model to the modern reactive response model, through his development of the 'Mechanized Division'.
[21] Under his stewardship from 1930 to 1959, Nottingham City Police were the first force in the UK to develop the use of two-way radio communication.
As early as 1931 they used radios to deploy mobile police patrol cars remotely, and receive updates from them in return.
[22] Popkess and the Nottingham City Police would expand this pioneering method and develop tactics to use it to its full potential, including: overlaying mobile patrol areas on top of several existing foot beats, allowing responding Mechanized Division officers to collect colleagues on foot and take them to incidents; 'snatch plans' to pot up police cars at key road junctions in the event of serious crimes; and 'Q Cars' or 'Q Cruisers', unmarked vehicles disguised as civilian cars or delivery vans for covert patrol.
The MacPherson report of 1999 recommended against height restrictions, arguing that they may discriminate against those of ethnic backgrounds who are genetically predisposed to be shorter than average.
[25] The shortest officer in the UK, PC Sue Day of Wiltshire Police, is 4 feet 10 inches (147 cm) tall.
[26] The tallest is PC Anthony Wallyn of the Metropolitan Police who is 7 feet 2 inches (218 cm) tall.
The act required each borough in England and Wales to establish a Watch Committee, who had the duty of appointing constables "for the preserving of the peace".
It is recognised as specialist area of academia; with notable experts including Clive Emsley, Dr Chris Williams, Martin Stallion, and Richard Cowley.
