The Metropolitan Police (Edexcel GCSE History)

How did the Metropolitan Police Contribute to the Issues of Crime in Whitechapel? - Timeline & Summary

Who were the Metropolitan Police?

• Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police (or the Met) in 1829

  • The Met only policed London

  • It aimed to improve the standard of policing across London

• The government added a detective department to the Met in 1842

  • It was small and ineffective

  • The role of detectives confused the public

    • They did not understand why detectives did not stop crimes from happening

• By 1885, the Met had 13,319 officers

  • Only 1,383 officers were available for the Met at one time

How Good Were Police Recruits in the Nineteenth Century?

• To begin with, recruits to the Metropolitan Police had to meet a series of requirements. The Met insisted that constables were:

  • Healthy men between the ages of 18 and 35

  • Over 5’7” tall (1.7 metres)

  • Able to read and write

• By c1870, the Met struggled to attract good quality recruits because:

  • Constables had to work seven days a week

  • The pay was incredibly poor

    • Constables received a pay of roughly 21 shillings for a seven-day week

  • The work was inconsistent

    • Patrolling a beat could be very dangerous or very boring

    • Sergeants followed constables to ensure they were not avoiding work or sleeping on the job

• As a result, the quality of police recruits declined by c.1870

  • This caused a worsening in the efficiency of the Met

The H Division

• The Metropolitan Police categorised London into 20 divisions

  • Each division policed a different section of London

  • The Met allocated each division a letter of the alphabet

• The division responsible for policing Whitechapel was H Division

• H Division had a clear chain of command

How was H Division structured?

A flow diagram showing the chain of command in H Division

Features and Roles of the Beat Constable

• A beat was the area that a constable patrolled

  • During a day or night shift, the constable would march with his colleagues in their division

  • Once the constable had reached his beat, he would move out of formation and into his patrol

What did a beat constable look like?

An illustration showing the features of a Metropolitan police constable’s uniform and the purpose for each item of the uniform

What responsibilities did a beat constable have?

The Development of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

• In 1878, Edmund Henderson became Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The government tasked Henderson to create the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

  • There was a police corruption scandal in 1877

    • Three senior officers in Scotland Yard had accepted bribes

    • The public question the reputation of Metropolitan detectives

    • The government needed to improve policing standards among detectives

• The CID contained 216 detectives

  • The detectives still worked their local beat

    • This ensured that the detectives had good knowledge of the local area

  • People began to understand the difference between crime detection and crime prevention

• The CID did not improve detective standards

  • The Jack the Ripper murders in 1888 showed that the methods used by detectives did not catch criminals

  • Corruption remained an issue in the CID

The Home Secretary and Policing in the 19th Century

• The Met was the only police force that the Home Secretary was directly responsible for

  • The government refused to allow the London County Council to take control of the Met in 1889

    • The government wanted the Met under the control of the middle and upper classes 

• The Home Secretary appointed the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police

  • Sir Charles Warren became Metropolitan Police Commissioner in 1886

    • Warren was a former general. This showed the close relationship between the government and the police at this time

  • Warren was an unpopular commissioner

    • In 1887, the SDF protested in Trafalgar Square against the government on issues such as unemployment

      • The government had banned the right to protest

    • Warren called the army to stop the protest

      • This violence turned more lower-class districts of London against the army and the police force

    • In 1888, the Jack the Ripper murders hit Whitechapel

      • The government blamed Warren for the police’s failure to catch the murderer

      • Warren resigned as Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Public Attitudes Towards the Metropolitan Police

• By the mid-nineteenth century, the Met had established a good reputation among most people in London

  • Most areas viewed constables as reliable

  • The majority of Londoners wanted the peace and order

• Areas like Whitechapel did not view the Met so positively

  • Gangs attacked the beat constables of H Division often

  • Anti-government protestors mostly came from the poorer classes

    • When the police put down demonstrations, protestors saw the police as helping a bad government instead of helping the poor

    • The police used violence to stop protestors. The police gained a reputation for being heavy-handed and increasing the disorder in London