Policing

Question 1

Describe the role of JPs

Answer 1

• Unpaid rich land owners took job for importance
• Could sentence fines, S+P, whip and ran courts
• 1554 could arrest upon suspicion
• At quarter sessions could sentence death
• License ale houses, regulate sport and road works

Question 2

Describe the role of constables

Answer 2

• Annual job for 2 people per county
• Unpaid side job so was unpopular
• Dealt with everyday matters e.g. whipping, ducking
• Regular neighbor report made it unpopular
• Rich people paid others to do the job for them

Question 3

Describe the role of Watchmen

Answer 3

• Introduced in 1663
• First paid policers
• Night police read out the time
• Could lock up suspicious people for the night
• Armed with a bell, lantern, rattle and staff
• Pay was low so only old people and disabled
• They were baited easily and slept in pubs
• Most effective night police at the time

Question 4

Why did crime increase in the 1700s?

Answer 4

• Industrial revolution meant increase in population density so people chose crime over work
• Some JPs were corrupted
• Unpopular and ineffective policers

Question 5

Describe the formation of the Bow Street Runners

Answer 5

• Chief magistrate in 1748 and founded BSR in 1749
• Hired 6 honest young men, trained and paid
• No uniforms
• Horse patrol were armed with cutlass, pistol and baton

Question 6

How were the BSR successful?

Answer 6

• Changed views towards policing
• Revolutionized policing and made effective
• Proved that the old system was faulty
• Reduced crime

Question 7

Describe how John Fielding improved the BSR

Answer 7

• Known as the Blind Beak and identify over 3000
• Gave BSR uniform and better equipment
• Published Hue and Cry newspaper
• Reformed the horse patrol as the Robin Redbreasts
• 1798 River Thames Police
• 1800 Bow Street Runners reached 68

Question 8

Arguments for and against organised police

Answer 8

✓ Crime rate rising
✓ Unpaid policers ineffective
✓ Army violent during riots
✓ BSR proof it worked

x Threaten freedom
x Invasion of privacy
x Too expensive

Question 9

Describe the establishment of the Met Police

Answer 9

• The 1829 Act gave them a 7 mile radius with 3000 men armed with truncheons wearing blue coasts and black hats
• The 1839 extended this to 15 miles and got rid of other forms of policing like the BSR and Watchmen
• 1856 County and Borough Act made every town had to have a full time paid police. 1 per 1000 people
• The Eastend wasn’t fond of them. They were nicknamed ‘crushers’. Children threw rocks at them so they patrolled in pairs that in the 60s, hats replaced with helmets
• People became more easy on them after the Coldbath Fields incident in 1833

Question 10

Describe early and late specialisation in policing

Answer 10

• 1867 telegraph first used to improve communications
• 1878 CID set up, 800 members in 5 years
• Photography and fingerprinting end of 1800s
• 1919 Flying Squad
• 1935 Med Labs
• 1946 Dog Handlers
• 1995 National DNA, 6M profiles
• SOCA preserve crime scenes

Question 11

Describe the increased resources that modern police have today

Answer 11

• 1910 radio communication used
• 1920 women join the police
• 1930 999 line set up
• 1960s computers used to store data
• Police now have more varied transport

Question 12

Describe the problems police today face

Answer 12

• Police only have batons and CS gas so arguments for increasing arms
• They have increased powers to stop and search which is criticized
• Red tape
• Organised crime makes up 2% of GDP with 400 bases in the UK.
• 2006 SOCA then turned into 2013 NCA