This item is held in Loughborough University’s Institutional Repository (https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/) and was harvested from the British Library’s EThOS service (http://www.ethos.bl.uk/). It is made available under the following Creative Commons Licence conditions. For the full text of this licence, please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ THE ORIGINS AND IMPACT OFTHE FuNCTION OF CRIME INVESTIGATION AND DETECTION INTHE BRITISH POLICE SERVICE by LawrenceThomton Roach,QPM B. Sc (Econ) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University June 2004 (DLawrence T. Roach2004 Acknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGMETSM My decisionto re-launchmyself as a researcherafter a lifetime spentin operational policing could not havebeen contemplated let aloneachieved without the encouragement,support and active assistanceof many people. I will try briefly to conveythe extentof my indebtednessto them here. My thanksmust first go to ProfessorSue Cox, formerly headof the Centrefor Hazardand Risk Managementat LoughboroughUniversity andnow Deanof the ManagementSchool at LancasterUniversity. Without her warmth,encouragement and patienceI doubt I would havemade the diff icult transitionfrom nearthe top of one careerto the foot of another. Certainly, I could not havemade the necessary personaland academicadjustments. In that connectionProfessor John M. Wilson, playedan indispensablepart. Without his ability to find solutionsto the impossible administrativeand organisational problems set by my research,and his calmness and sureguiding handat momentsof stress,this thesiswould not and could not have appeared. I suspect that every research student owes much of any successthey might have to the support and guidance of their supervisors. I am no exception to that rule. Professor Adrian Wilkinson of the Business School at Loughborough University and Professor John Baldwin, Head of the Law School at the University of Birmingham kindly undertook that task for me. The extent of the problems they so ably and efficient resolved is amply shown in the fact that senior members of two different Universities were required properly to supervise my work. I am more gratefulthan I can easilyexpress for the value andthe robustnessof their guidance, and for their unfailing supportin difficult circumstances. For different reasonsI also owe a greatdeal to the late Sir Karl R. Popperwith whoseviews and methodsI becameacquainted while taking my first degreeon a police scholarshipto the London Schoolof Economicsand Political Sciencein the later 1960's. I recognisedthen his powerful influenceon the social sciences,but only when I beganserious work on this thesisdid I fully appreciatethe depthand strengthof his scholarshipand the high standardshe setfor research. His views and,I hope,his standardshave much influencedmy approachto this work. In additionto my other difficulties, my researchwas donepart-time, at homeand more than one hundredmiles from my University campus. I havetherefore been dependent morethan usually on the supportof librariesand their staff. The Acknowledgments ii custodians of the Pilkington Library at my own University were considerate to the point of indulgence of a student unwilling to return a book with anything less than a fortnight's notice and only able to transact business by 'phone and fax. Astothe libraries that dealt with me in person, the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics and the Learning Resource Centre at the University of Hertfordshire could not have been treated me with greater courtesy or given better assistance. Elsewhere I was granted a pass to the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale in London, and what was more important, an excellent introduction to its contents. And the staff of what, perforce, became my main source of accessto books, the British Library in Euston Road, London, excelled themselves. Much of the sparseliterature on early policing is either unavailable or out of print, but the British Library rarely failed to produce a reference, however old or obscure. I am particularly grateful for the interest and enthusiasm of its staff in supporting a demanding, and sometimes troublesome, mature student researcher. I discoveredmuch of the original materialused in this researchat the Public RecordsOffice (now the National Archive) at Kew in London. Everyoneand anyonevisiting that treasurehouse for researcherswill find themselvesconstantly in conversationwith its staff. Successfulresearch at the PRO is impossiblewithout their support. I found it expert,understanding and ever-available. I havealso hadthe advantageof accessto materialheld at the MetropolitanPolice Museumat Blackwall in London and in the MetropolitanPolice Libraries at New ScotlandYard and at the Training Schoolat Hendon. In that regardmy special thanksgo to Ellie Haynesfor her personalinterest and support. Finally, let me thank my family and friendsfor their fond, firm (if sometimes uncomprehending)support. Specialthanks in that regardmust go first to my wife, Sandraand then to the membersof the MetropolitanPolice Traditional Aikido Club undertheir (andmy) Chief InstructorDenise Holmes, a groupto which I belong both as a participantand asHonorary President. Not only did they keepme informedand on the right track in developmentsin policing, but they also endured my sometimesincomprehensible musing and occasionalcross-examinations about policing and its problemswithout too much complaint. Forthat, andforalithe other help and supportI havehad, I give muchthanks. For sucherrors, omissions and mereincompetence as may be discoveredin this work, I take full responsibility. LawrenceT. Roach,QPM June2004 (A) Keywords ii Keywords " Metropolitan Police " Detectives " History of policing " Police reform " Crime prevention " Crime detection " Crime investigation " Criminal justice " Peacekeeping " Public order Abstract ii(a) LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT THE ORIGINS AND IMPACT OF THE FUNCTION OF CRIME INVESTIGATION AND DETECTION IN THE BRITISH POLICE SERVICE by LawrenceT. Roach QPM B.Sc. (Econ. ) In this thesisthe processby which crime investigation,detection and prosecution becamean integral function of the British police serviceis analysedthrough an examination of public records, contemporary papers and documents, and by reference to the literature on policing. The impact of the adoption of that function on the role, organisation and management of modem British policing is then assessed. It is established that at its foundation by Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, the British professional police service was intended to be a purely preventive and protective body of uniformed patrolling constables. The function of crime investigation, detection and criminal prosecution was then subsequently added to its responsibilities by government using administrative rather than any democratic or legislative means, thus creating the present dual crime prevention and crime detection role of the police. Major recurrentproblems experienced by the modemBritish police serviceare identified as arising from that changein its original functions and purposes,and proposalsfor action to resolvethem are set out. il .( lo Contents Chapter Title Pages 1. Introduction Ito 11 Background 1 Origins of professional policing 2 Constables and Justices 4 Bow Street Runners and Patroles 8 The New Police 10 2. Sources and Methods 12 to 30 Practical difficulties 12 Sources 13 Public and Parliamentarypapers 14 British Library Newspaper Library 15 Risks of history 16 Literature on policing 18 Libraries 18 Uses history of - the historians view. 19 Sociological methods 21 Sociology ofpolicing 21 Organization studies 23 -paradigms and incommensurability 23 - methodologicalproliferation. 24 Popper and the scientific method 25 Science as a method 26 Sources and Methods - conclusion 27 Submission 29 3. Foundations of Professional Policing 31 to 44 Peel's New Police 31 Select Committee of 1828 32 Crime in 1829 33 Unreliability of Crime Statistics 34 Peel and the Causes of Crime 35 The parochial authorities 36 A pleafor co-ordination 36 The Watch House system 38 Peel and the London Magistrates 40 Contents iiýp) Peace Preservation Police 42 Peel as Reformer 42 'One Head Presiding' 43 4. First Commissioners 45 to 59 45 Peel's neglect Political context 46 47 Peel and policing Peel and his Commissioners 47 51 The magistrates and the New Police influence of Colquhon 51 Constahle Culley 53 The Press 54 Importance ofPatrol 55 First Instructions to the New Police 56 Other Instructions 58 Responsibilities of the New Police 59 5. Select Committees 60 to 76 The 'Popay' Select Committee of 1833 61 Use of Spies 63 Police of the Metropolis Select Committee, 1833/1834 65 Evidence to the 1833 Police Committee 65 The prevention ofcrime 66 The detection of offenders 67 Instructionsfrom Home Secretary 69 Common Informers 70 Reports of the Select Committees 71 'Executive' and 'Judicial' functions 74 Detective duties 75 6. Turning Point 77 to 93 Police Offices Select Committee of 1837/8 77 Edward Gihhon Wakefield 81 The Commissioners and amalgamation 83 The Commissioners and the duties of the magistrates 86 The Commissioners and crime 87 Misunderstandings 93 7. Acts and Consequences 94 to 104 The hasty Acts of 1839 94 The Royal Commission of 1839 98 Contents iii Enquiry into crime 99 Public prosecutions 100 Consequences 102 Effects of the Acts 103 Year of turmoil 104 8. Emergence of the Detectives