Before the Bobbies : The Night Watch and Police Reform in Metropolitan London, 1720-1830

Historians, legal scholars, sociologists and crime readers will learn from this book that modern policing emerged long before Scotland Yard. Police reform developed over decades, the work of local authorities motivated more by fears of property crime than radicalism or riots. Local and national officials cooperated at many levels to provide relatively effective policing for London, culminating in Sir Robert Peel's centralized Metropolitan Police in 1829. The early modern British state was thus more responsive to urban problems than previously has been acknowledged. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-6 Westminster, 1720-39....Pages 7-28 An Expanding Watch, 1748-76....Pages 29-44 Collaboration, 1750-74....Pages 45-57 New Means to Old Ends....Pages 58-83 The War Years, 1793-1815....Pages 84-102 Night Watch to Police, 1811-28....Pages 103-124 Why 1829?....Pages 125-147 Charlies to Bobbies....Pages 148-166 Back Matter....Pages 167-220