Dodos, Dod Street, and Destitution: London’s Metropolitan Police Confront Order

London’s Metropolitan police became the model for such forces all over the world. Yet when they were formed in 1829, there was only a vague framework of what they were to do and how they were to do it. Young men recruited from the country were told their “the principal object is ‘the Prevention of Crime’…The security of person and property, the preservation of the public tranquility.” That was more important than “detection and punishment after…the crime.”  But what that meant in terms of pragmatic application was far from clear. London’s bobbies found themselves involved in a myriad of activities including catching dogs, finding lost children, monitoring political rallies, and ticketing cabs, in addition to catching “criminals.” In the next several decades their responsibilities became defined and delineated by political pressures, the demands of a huge metropolis, changes in municipal structure, and the emerging concept of public order as a mainstay of a city.

Historians have debated for decades about the nature of the police, the political agendas that influenced them, and their success in crime control. Few have addressed the larger issue of how police were pressured to establish a framework for urban order that never existed before. This new concept of public order was in turn influenced by pressures for economic success, and the need to facilitate commercial viability. Yet the new public order structure often conflicted with long-held beliefs regarding personal and legal rights, common practices and traditions of urban life, and changing political values. This paper explores what these changes and tensions were, how they helped establish a new public order framework in 19^th century London, and how this served as a profound influence for other world cities into the 21^st century.