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The New Science of Policing: Crime and the Birmingham Police Force, 1839–1842

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Michael Weaver
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Extract

After years of tinkering with the notion of police reform, Parliament in 1829 passed the Metropolis Police Improvement Act, which established the famous Metropolitan Police Force, England's first body of uniformed, fulltime “professional” police. Bodies of the “new police” were allowed to spread outside of London by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. These provincial forces answered to local authorities, a pattern disrupted in 1839 when Parliament passed three bills establishing centrally-controlled police forces for Birmingham, Bolton, and Manchester. These Acts were emergency measures, with a three-year duration, designed to hurriedly provide forces of new police in towns that seemed threatened by Chartist unrest. In the case of Birmingham a combination of aggressive Chartist activity—which produced two major riots in the summer of 1839—and fierce political in-fighting between the town's elite factions convinced Parliament that the new force, to be commanded by ex-army officer Francis Burgess, should answer to the Home Office in London rather than to Birmingham's radical/liberal (and therefore perhaps untrustworthy) Town Council.

All of the forces of new police that appeared from 1829 to 1839 faced common problems, ranging from recruitment and retention difficulties to disciplinary troubles, but perhaps the most serious challenge confronting these new forces was the hostility of many of the citizens the forces were intended to protect. Opponents of the new police forces voiced their concerns that the forces amounted to a second standing army, that the new police could be used for domestic spying, and that they were too expensive to justify any benefits they might possibly provide. While all of the new forces experienced this type of opposition, the environment in Birmingham was particularly hostile for the force created by Act of Parliament in 1839.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , Summer 1994 , pp. 289 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1994

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References

1 There are several works that describe police reform in 19th-century Britain. One of the most recent is Emsley's, CliveThe English Police: A Political and Social History (New York, 1991), pp. 23–40Google Scholar, covers the decade from 1829 to 1839. See also Critchley, Thomas Alan, A History of Police in England and Wales, 900–1966 (Montclair, N.J., 1967)Google Scholar; and Palmer, Stanley H., Police and Protest in England and Ireland, 1780–1850 (London, 1988)Google Scholar.

2 For a longer discussion of the political maneuvering behind the formation of the Birmingham police, and the impact local politics had on the new force, see Weaver, Michael, “Crime, Chartism, Community and the New Police: The Birmingham Police Act, 1839–1842” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1989)Google Scholar.

3 Clive Emsley illustrates several examples of continuing opposition to the new police forces throughout the 1840s, in The English Police, pp. 41–47.

4 George Rudé felt that a more useful system would be to divide crimes into three categories: acquisitive crime; “social” or “survival” crime; and protest crime. Such a system of categorization does have advantages, but it has problems as well. Rudé himself notes that violent crimes, such as murder and rape, do not fit into these categories. Neither do many assaults, or much of the crime committed under the influence of drink. Furthermore, using the contemporary division of crimes against persons and property helps maintain closer contact with the mindset of Victorian authority (Rudé, George, Criminal and Victim: Crime and Society in Early Nineteenth-Century England [Oxford, 1985], pp. 78–88Google Scholar).

5 Jones, David J. V.Crime, Protest, Community and Police in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London, 1982), pp. 5–6, 155Google Scholar.

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7 Jones, , Crime, Protest, Community and Police, pp. 91–92, 97, 107–10Google Scholar.

8 HO65/10, Burgess to Phillipps, 14 Jan. 1840, p. 37.

9 Parish of Birmingham Constables' Accounts, 1778–1842 (Birmingham Reference Library #661859).

10 “An Act for laying open and widening certain ways and passages within the town of Birmingham, etc and for widening certain other streets and places; for establishing a nightly watch; and for regulating carts and carmen employed in the said town” (8 and 9 Geo III, Sess. 2, c. 83). Between 1769 and 1839 several additional improvement acts defined and elaborated the structure and duties of the watch, see: 13 Geo III, c. 36 (1773); 31 Geo III, c. 17 (1791); 41 Geo III, c. 39 (1801); 52 Geo III, c. 113 (1812); 9 Geo IV, c. 54 (1828); and 10 Geo IV, c. 6 (1829).

11 Moriarty, C. C. H. “Formation of the Birmingham City Police Force: An address given to the Rotary Club, on 9th March 1936, by the Chief Constable.” (Birmingham Reference Library #448811), p. 1Google Scholar; Gill, Conrad, History of Birmingham: Volume 1, to 1865 (New York 1952), p. 178Google Scholar. Initially, Burgess's force consisted of 1 Superintendent, 4 Inspectors-in-Chief, 8 Sub-Inspectors, 26 Sergeants, and 250 Constables.

12 Birmingham Journal (hereafter cited as BJ), 7 Nov. 1829, p. 2e; BJ 15 Sept. 1827, p. 2d.

13 BJ 24 Dec. 1825, p. 3b.

14 BJ 24 May 1828, p. 1e.

15 For a discussion of these organizations see David Philips, “Good men to Associate and Bad Men to Conspire: Associations for the Prosecutions of Felons in England, 1760–1860”; and King, Peter, “Prosecution Associations and their Impact in Eighteenth-Century Essex,” both in Hay, Douglas and Snyder, Francis, eds., Policing and Prosecution in Britain 1750–1850 (Oxford, 1989)Google Scholar. For an example of how such an association operated, at least in theory, see The Rules and Orders of the Society of Manufacturers and Others, for the Protection of their Property, and the Detection and Punishment of Thieves, and Receivers of Stolen Goods (Birmingham, 1840), Birmingham Reference Library #64092Google Scholar.

16 Minute Book of the Birmingham Police Committee, 1789– 1790. Birmingham Reference Library #386813, pp. 1–3.

17 Jenkinson, Richard, Richard Jenkinson's Address to the Men of Birmingham, of His Recent Conviction in Five Pounds and Costs, For Selling the Journal Office Report Of the Last Newhall-Hill Meeting; With the Lives and Portraits of the Informers, etc. (Birmingham, 1833), p. 7Google Scholar.

18 BJ, 2 January 1841, p. 5a.

19 Jenkinson, , Address to the Men of Birmingham, p. 8Google Scholar; Jenkinson, Richard, Jenkinson's Warning Voice to the Oppressors, Showing the State of Society in Birmingham, Facts on the Spy and Informing System, on the Supineness of the Magistracy (Birmingham, 1833), p. 9Google Scholar.

20 Jenkinson, , Warning Voice, pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

21 Colquhoun, Patrick, A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Explaining the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors which at Present are Felt as a Pressure Upon the Community, and Suggesting Remedies for Their Prevention (London, 1796), pp. ii, 402Google Scholar.

22 Birmingham Police, Instructions, Orders, Etc. (1839), Birmingham Reference Library #64854, p. 6Google Scholar.

23 HO65/10 Burgess to Phillipps, 1 Jan. 1840, pp. 32–34.

24 Birmingham Police Police Order Book, vol. I, 6 November 1839, p. 2 (hereafter cited as POB).

25 Police Instruction Book, p. 34.

26 POB, 21 June 1840, p. 99; 31 Oct. 1840, pp. 155–56; 2 Nov. 1840, pp. 157–58.

27 POB, 4 Dec. 1839, p. 11; 5 Dec. 1839, pp. 11–12.

28 POB, 6 May 1840, p. 80; 18 Nov. 1840, p. 165.

29 POB, 5 Sept. 1840, p. 128; 26 Dec. 1840, p. 178; 28 Dec. 1840, pp. 178–79.

30 POB, 10 Feb. 1840, pp. 39–40; 22 March 1840, p. 58; 31 Oct. 1840, pp. 155–56; 2 Nov. 1840, pp. 157–58.

31 POB, 17 May 1841, p. 256; 21 May 1841, p. 259; 25 Aug. 1841, p. 323; 25 Sept. 1841, p. 341; 29 Sept. 1841, p. 343.

32 Police Instruction Book, pp. 15, 42.

33 POB, p. 152.

34 BJ, 13 Feb. 1841, p. 7b.

35 Birmingham Advertiser (hereafter cited as BA), 15 Oct. 1840, p. 2f.Google Scholar

36 POB, 25 June 1841, p. 284.

37 BA 4 June 1840, p. 3b; BJ 9 Jan. 1841, p. 3a.

38 HO65/10 Burgess to Fox Maule, 15 Sept. 1840, p. 71; POB 12 Oct. 1840 pp. 145–146.

39 POB 22 Sept. 1840, p. 136; 11 April 1841, p. 234; 12 April 1841, p. 235.

40 POB 29 Sept. 1841, p. 344; 19 Jan. 1842, p. 414

41 BA 19 Nov. 1840, p. 3a.

42 BA 24 Feb. 1842, p. 3a.

43 BA 19 Nov. 1840, p. 3a; POB 11 Feb. 1840, p. 40.

44 BJ 10 Oct. 1840, p. 4d; BA 15 Oct. 1840, p. 2g.

45 BJ 24 Oct. 1840, p. 7e; BA 12 Nov. 1840, p. 3, and 26 Nov. 1840, p. 2f–2g.

46 BJ 28 Nov. 1840, p. 4e.

47 Report of the Town Council Meeting, BA 7 July 1842, p. 3e–3gGoogle Scholar.

48 Report of the Town Council Meeting, BA 15 Sept. 1842, p. 3b–3cGoogle Scholar.

49 Ascoli, David, The Queen's Peace: The Origins and Development of the Metropolitan Police, 1829–1979 (London, 1979), p. 118Google Scholar.

50 For example, see Oavey's, B. J. study of the police of Homcastle, Lincolnshire, in Lawless and Immoral: Policing a Country Town (New York, 1983)Google Scholar.

51 POB 23 Dec. 1839, p. 21; 10 Feb. 1840, pp. 39–40; 14 March 1840, p. 53.

52 POB 16 Dec. 1840, p. 17–18; 22 March 1840, p. 58; 7 Nov. 1840, p. 161; 20 March 1841, p. 222.

53 For more information on the formation of this first formal detective force within the Metropolitan Police, see: Ascoli, David, Queen's Peace, pp. 118–20Google Scholar; Browne, Douglas Gordon, The Rise of Scotland Yard: A History of the Metropolitan Police (London, 1956), p. 121Google Scholar; and Smith, Philip Thurmond, Policing Victorian London: Political Policing, Public Order and the London Metropolitan Police (Westport, Conn., 1985), pp. 62–63Google Scholar.

54 POB, vol. II, 27 Aug. 1842, p. 37.

55 POB 30 March 1840, pp. 61–62; 1 April 1840, p. 63.

56 BA 7 Jan. 1841, p. 3b.

57 BA 19 Dec. 1839, p. 1f–g; 26 Dec. 1839, p. 3b–f; 2 Jan. 1840, p. 1g; POB 24 April 1840, p. 75.

58 Edwards, E., Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men; Reprinted from the Birmingham Daily Mail (Birmingham, 1877), p. 9Google Scholar.

59 BA 5 March 1840, p. 3b; 16 July 1840, p. 3e; 24 Sept. 1840, p. 3b; BJ 18 April 1840, p. 7d; POB 12 Oct. 1840, p. 145.

60 Parliamentary Papers, “House of Commons Criminal and Statistical Returns Relative to the Birmingham Police,” 18, no. 477, 1841, p. 20Google Scholar; Birmingham Police Office Number of Persons Taken into Custody by the Birmingham Police, and the Results, in the Year 1841, etc. (Birmingham, 1842), Birmingham Reference Library #34950, p. 22.

61 BA 2 January 1840, p. 4a–b; 23 July 1840, p.4a.

62 BA 13 January 1842, p. 3d; 9 June 1842, p. 2g.

63 BA 30 Nov. 1839, p. 5c.

64 Swift, Roger, Police Reform in Early Victorian York, 1835–1856 (York, 1988), pp. 10–11Google Scholar.

65 Emsley, The English Police, pp. 41–44Google Scholar.

66 BG 18 July 1842, p. 3g.