Metropolitan Police first police force ?

[rod g]

Reading though these forums I have seen mention a number of times about the Met being the first of the Modern Police forces I Beg to differ.

the City of Glasgow police was formed on the 30th of June 1800.

the Met was formed on the 29th ofSept 1829.

Making the City of Glasgow the oldest by 29 years .

The City of Glasgow Police was formed - with full-time paid officers, wearing uniforms with "Police" insignia and with a remit for, amongst other things, crime prevention - in 1800 by an Act of Parliament, nearly three decades before the Met was set up in 1829!

What's even more important is that the Metropolitan Police have previously tried to claim to be "the oldest police force in the world", which brought an immediate investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority, and subsequently the only way for the Met to avoid a criminal prosecution was to give the ASA a written undertaking never to repeat this untrue claim ever again.

From Wikipedia

In 1779, Bailies (magistrates) of the City of Glasgow appointed James Buchanan as Inspector and established a Police force of eight police officers. This force failed through lack of finance in 1781. In 1788 six Bailies proposed to establish a Police force and obtain an Act of Parliament to empower them to levy a rate from householders to finance the force.

The Bailies displayed vision and innovation in setting out their proposals insisting that the force would be run by a Watch Committee of elected citizens, known as Commissioners. The force would wear uniforms with numbered badges with 'Police' inscribed on them and each member would lodge £50 to guarantee their good conduct. The force of eight would provide twenty-four hour patrols (supplementing the Police Watchmen who were on static points throughout the night) to prevent crime and detect offenders.

The policemen they envisaged would not be mere watchmen and what they had written down was the concept of "Preventive Policing", 40 years before Sir Robert Peel established preventive policing in the Metropolitan area of London in 1829. In February 1789 this force of truly professional police took to the streets.

During the following eleven years, Glasgow City fathers tried to get their Police Bill before Parliament, but without success. In the meantime, the small, pioneering, Glasgow police force, led by the Master of Police, Richard Marshall, was struggling to maintain its existence due to lack of the finance that the Bill would have provided. In 1790 the force failed and the City had again to rely on a City Guard of citizens. During the summer of 1800, the Glasgow Police Bill was debated in Parliament and on 30 June 1800, the Glasgow Police Act received Royal Assent.

Glasgow Police pre-date Peel

Friday 5 October 2012

I NOTE with interest your article which stated that the academics at the Glasgow School of Art had recommended in their report that the statue of Robert Peel be relocated to outside Strathclyde Police Headquarters )"Campaign to move statues from square to city parks", The Herald, October 1).

I NOTE with interest your article which stated that the academics at the Glasgow School of Art had recommended in their report that the statue of Robert Peel be relocated to outside Strathclyde Police Headquarters )"Campaign to move statues from square to city parks", The Herald, October 1).

Robert Peel had nothing to do with the founding of policing in Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular. The Glasgow Police Act 1800 was the UK's first Police Act, 29 years before Peel's Metropolitan Police in London.

This is further reinforced by the fact that as Robert Peel was 12 years of age in 1800, I can say with confidence that he had no input whatsoever in the compilation of that particular piece of pioneering legislation or the subsequent formation of another ten Scottish police forces before 1829.

It would have been more helpful if those responsible for the report had done some research into the subject in keeping with their academic status.

In fact, a field trip to the Glasgow Police Museum would have proved beneficial.

Alastair Dinsmor,

Curator,

Glasgow Police Museum,

30 Bell Street,

Glasgow.

RodG

PS

Formally established in 1838 under Henry Inman,^[1] the force is the oldest in Australasia and it is the third oldest organised Police Service in the World

here I go again

[Polsa999]

You have made an important point and one which I support.

I have made one or two comments on this forum and elsewhere regarding claims of being the first police force and it has niggled me that Glasgow and Thames police are often overlooked.

My own area of interest and dare I say it, expertise, lies in the railway, dock and canal police. In that I have this interest does not blinker me from acknowledging any properly evidenced research regarding the origins or functions of the early police.

The early railway police are often derided as being no more than controllers of trains, they were certainly more than this although they had this function, but they also managed incidents on railway property and often within the county when called upon to do so. Those who are able to can search the British Newspaper Archives for incidents involving railway police in the 1830's and later will discover a wealth of interesting stories often predating county and city forces.

It is recorded that the London North Western Railway police provided the police function to the township of Crewe until 1884 as did many other railway police forces.

So Rod, well done for raising this point in succh a succint manner.

Steve

[Adrob]

You are all forgetting the Malta Police Force, which was formed on the 12th July 1814..making it the Second oldest and not the Metropolitan Police !!