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The London Metropolitan Police

Tell me about the police in Whitechapel?

By the late nineteenth century, the police force had been in existence for sixty years. Whitechapel, seen as a centre of crime, was a specifically challenging area for them to deal with.

Who joined the police in the late nineteenth century?

Of recruits to the police force in the late 1800s:

• ❖ About 31% came from the surrounding countryside.
• ❖ About 12% were ex-soldiers.

Who were the police recruits at the end of the nineteenth century?

The expectations of police recruits in the late 1800s were that:

• ❖ They were preferred to come from the countryside, as people from the country were seen as stronger and more difficult to corrupt.
• ❖ They were expected to be well-disciplined, truthful, quick, energetic and in control of their temper.
• ❖ They were supposed to be literate, and able to read and write.

Why did people join the police?

Those who joined the police did so because they could gain:

• ❖ A steady, if not high, wage.
• ❖ The possibility of promotion.
• ❖ After 1860, a pension if they served on the force for 30 years.

Tell me about the London Metropolitan Police by 1900.

Whitechapel was policed by the London Metropolitan Police. This was the first police force set up by Robert Peel in 1829, and ran differently to other forces.

• ❖ Unlike other police forces at the time, the London Met was directly answerable to the Home Secretary in Westminster.
• ❖ In 1888, it had 13,319 police officers for a population of about five million.
• ❖ This was about one police officer for every 390 people, which wasn't seen as enough at the time.

What was the role of the Metropolitan Police after 1870?

As well as dealing with crime and criminals, the Metropolitan Police had a number of other responsibilities. In the 1870s there were 82 laws around their role. Among other things, they were expected to deal with:

• ❖ Accidents.
• ❖ Vagrants.
• ❖ Lost or homeless children.
• ❖ Lunatics.
• ❖ Pubs.
• ❖ Sewage.
• ❖ Traffic.
• ❖ Accidents.

What about detectives in the Victorian London Metropolitan police?

The Criminal Investigation Bureau, the organisation of detectives that investigated crimes in the police, was undergoing a period of change at the time of the Ripper murders.

• ❖ It was first set up as a very small force in 1842.
• ❖ It was controversial. It wasn't clear whether it was there to prevent or solve crime, and people didn't like feeling as though they were being spied on.
• ❖ There was a corruption scandal in 1877, in which many detectives were found to have been taking bribes.
• ❖ Sir Howard Vincent was put in charge of setting up a new CID in 1878, which began as a force of 216 officers.
• ❖ Even after this, the CID was seen as quite corrupt and its failure in the Jack the Ripper case didn't help.

Who was in charge of the London Metropolitan Police during the Ripper case?

The Metropolitan Police was, to some extent, shaped by the men who led it. In the 1880s and 1890s the Commissioners and other leaders made an impact on how it was run.

• ❖ The Metropolitan Police was answerable to the Home Secretary and therefore run by the government. In 1886 this was Henry Matthews.
• ❖ Edmund Henderson was Commissioner from 1869 to 1886.
• ❖ Charles Warren was Commissioner from 1886 to 1888.
• ❖ James Munro was Assistant Commissioner of the Met from 1884 to 1888, and then became Commissioner from 1888 to 1890.
• ❖ Howard Vincent was an influential Head of CID from 1878 to 1884.

Who was James Munro?

James Munro was Assistant Commissioner of the London Met from 1884 to 1888, when he resigned. He was then made Commissioner when Charles Warren was sacked at the height of the Ripper case.

Who was Henry Matthews?

Henry Matthews became Home Secretary in 1886, and was in charge of the London Met at the time of the Jack the Ripper case. He didn't get on with Charles Warren, and sacked him in November 1888.

Who was Charles Warren?

Sir Charles Warren had a short but eventful term as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, from 1886 to 1888.

• ❖ Warren was an army officer who served around the British Empire.
• ❖ He was reputed to be 'a man with an iron hand' when it came to running the police.
• ❖ He was much stricter about discipline then his predecessor Henderson, and increased the amount of drill in the force.
• ❖ He introduced more ex-soldiers into the force.
• ❖ He was in charge of what became known as the 'London Dog Hunt', when policemen were told to seize dogs that weren't under proper controlled, to the disgust and ridicule of the public.
• ❖ He was sacked at the height of the Ripper Investigation after his response to criticism for his handling of the Trafalgar Square Bloody Sunday incident in November 1887, in which two protesters were killed.

Who was Edmund Henderson?

Edmund Henderson was Commissioner of the Met from 1869 until 1886.

• ❖ Before becoming Commissioner of the Met, Henderson had worked in Canada and in the penal colonies of Australia.
• ❖ He was known as 'an easy-going chief' because he didn't always sack policemen the first time they were found drunk on duty, and didn't mind if they grew beards.
• ❖ He set up a police fund for the widows and orphans of policemen killed on duty.
• ❖ He organised for policemen to get the vote.
• ❖ He set up a register of habitual criminals.

Who was Howard Vincent?

Howard Vincent was a lawyer who was put in charge of the new Criminal Investigation Department in 1878.

• ❖ He wrote the first 'Police Code' about the expected conduct of the police.
• ❖ He increased the pay for detectives, to encourage better police officers to apply for the force.
• ❖ He increased the use of plain clothes in investigations.
• ❖ He centralised control of the detective force in the London Met.

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