DEVELOPMENT OF POLICE FORCE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 2

DEVELOPMENT OF POLICE FORCE

ADDRESS TO ROYAL EMPIRE SOCIETY

“When a young man applies to join the Police Force I advise him to forget immediately all trade union rules; they are not practicable in the force, where five-day weeks cannot be observed.” This remark was made by Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher, when he addressed the monthly luncheon meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Empire Society yesterday. Sub-Inspector Fletcher traced the development of the Police Force in England from feudal days, through the Middle Ages, when each able-bodied man in a parish was expected to act voluntarily for a time as a. constable. There was no organised force in England until about 1750, said SubInspector Fletcher. Henry Fieffiing, the novelist, who was also a lawyer and a capable criminologist, became one of the first stipendiary magistrates and organised the Bow Street runners, whose duty it was to help to maintain order.

But real organisation of the police force was carried out by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. in the face of wholehearted opposition from the Army, Sub-Inspector Fletcher said. One thousand men were trained as police. Their uniform consisted of tunics, white trousers, and stove-pipe hats. There were now in London. 20,000 metropolitan police. 1600 in Manchester, and 7000 in Scotland, he said. The total force in New Zealand numbered only 1600 members. In the Dominion, as m many other lands, it suffered from a shortage of staff. Mr Wilfrid Peers (president); presided at the meeting, and Mr ,E. J. Bridgman thanked the speaker.