The Police as a Career
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3400700306 |
| Published date | 01 July 1934 |
| Date | 01 July 1934 |
| Author | Clifton Reynes |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Police as a Career
AREVIEW
OF
THE
PAST,
WITH
SUGGESTIONS
FOR
THE
FUTURE
By
'CLIFTON
REYNES'
[This
is the winning essay of the
King's
Gold
Medal
Essay Competition, 1933.]
WHEN Shakespeare gave us the immortal Dogberry and
showed him giving his charge to the Watch in '
Much
Ado about Nothing,' he gave us at the same time a picture
which may have been an exaggeration,
but
which none the
less was partly true of the ancient Watch and Ward of the
England of some centuries ago.
, Are you all good men and
true?
' asked Dogberry ;
and, being satisfied that they were, proceeded to give them
their instructions.
That
two of them could read and write,
he thought, called for some notice.
'Well,
sirs,' he
said;
'for
the favours you have, give God thanks, and make no boast of
it;
and for your reading and writing, let that be until there
is need for such vanities.' During their night watch they
were to stop only such men as were willing to be stopped,
they were not to babble and talk in the streets, and, above all,
they were to make sure that if they slept their bills were not
stolen from them.
The
picture is drawn as only Shakespeare could draw it,
and generation after generation has laughed over it.
It
is,
of course, an exaggeration,
but
an exaggeration is only such
in proportion to the real fact, and from the Dogberry scene
we can arrive at a fairly accurate approximation of what actu-
ally took place in the old Watch and Ward of England. Dog-
berry undoubtedly was drawn true to life, and the system of
292
THE
POLICE
AS A CAREER 293
which he was a part continued without much change until
the end of the eighteenth century.
It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century
that the question of the policing of the country received any-
thing like the serious attention which the subject demanded.
It
is true that there had been isolated cases in which individual
and enlightened persons, such as the Fieldings, had made
brave attempts to bring matters into a better condition,
but
their efforts had not received the support of the Government
to anything like the extent that was necessary, and for all
practical purposes the police system of the country was as
yet non-existent. Crime was fast getting beyond control,
and it was plain that something would have to be done to cope
with the situation. As usually happens, however, for a time
Government action was
postponed;
Committee after Com-
mittee was appointed to inquire into and report upon the
problem, and almost without exception they emphasized the
need for fresh measures. Finally, when the matter had be-
come too urgent to be any longer shelved, Peel was called
upon to take it in hand. Very wisely he began with the
Metropolis, and when the system he there had initiated had
had time to prove itself efficient and successful it was gradually
extended to embrace the whole of the country.
For
the
purpose of this essay it will be appropriate if we take as typical
of the country as a whole the problem as presented and dealt
with in the Metropolis, and examine the problems of a police
career in the past before coming to matters relating to the
present time.
The
Beginnings
of
Modern
Police
Nowhere is the problem
that
faced the country acentury
ago in this matter more succinctly set out than in the Metro-
politan Police Act, 1829 (10 Geo. 4, c. 44).
The
preamble to
that Act declares that :
, Whereas offences against property have of late increased in and
near the Metropolis; and the local establishments of nightly watch
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