Metropolitan Police Service
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- Metropolitan Police redirects here. See also metropolitan police.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) (commonly referred to by its former official name of the Metropolitan Police, or colloquially as The Met; often referred to in legislation as the Police of the Metropolis) is the Home Office (territorial) police force responsible for Greater London, England, with the exception of the square mile of the City of London, which has its own police force, the City of London Police.
The Metropolitan Police's headquarters are at New Scotland Yard in Westminster, commonly known as Scotland Yard. The head of the Metropolitan Police Service is the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (usually referred to as the Commissioner). The post was first held jointly by Colonel Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne, and is currently held by Sir Ian Blair.
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Area covered
The Metropolitan Police Service covers an area known as the Metropolitan Police District (MPD), which today coincides with Greater London, excluding the City of London.
Before April 1, 2000, the MPD covered a larger area, established well before the current borders of Greater London were set. This larger area covered parts of Surrey, Hertfordshire and Essex, specifically all of Epsom and Ewell, Hertsmere and Spelthorne districts, along with Banstead, Cheshunt, Chigwell, Esher, Northaw and Cuffley, Waltham Abbey.
Along with the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police, Greater London is also policed by the British Transport Police (who are responsible for policing on the rail systems, London Underground, Tramlink and Docklands Light Railway). The Royal Parks Constabulary, which patrolled a number of London's major parks, was absorbed into the Metropolitan Police Service in 2004.
The Metropolitan Police has Borough Operational Command Units for each of the 32 London Boroughs, with another for Heathrow Airport. Historically it has been divided into numbered areas, but these appear not to be currently in use. From 1994 to 2000 there were five: Central (consisting of the City of Westminster with Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, and North-West, North-East, South-East and South-West). Prior to 1994 there had been eight divisions: North, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West and Westminster.
Specialist Departments
Image:Mounted.police.buckingham.palace.arp.jpg The Metropolitan Police specialist operations units are responsible for security and intelligence across London (and in some cases across the UK). The main Specialist Operations (or SO) units are:
- SO4 — National Identification Service
- SO12 — Special Branch
- SO13 — Anti-Terrorist Branch
- SO14 — Royalty Protection Branch
- SO16 — Diplomatic Protection Group
- SO17 — Palace of Westminster Division
- SO18 — Airports Policing
- SO19 — Force Firearms Unit
History
The service was established on September 29, 1829, by the then Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, giving rise to the nicknames of "Peelers" or "Bobbies" for members of the force. The Metropolitan Police was the second official non-paramilitary police force in the world (after the City of Glasgow Police), and is generally regarded as the first to be organised on a modern civil police basis.
Image:London.police.car.arp.750pix.jpg Until the middle of the 18th century, no police force operated in London. General law and order was maintained by magistrates, volunteer constables, watchmen and, where necessary, the armed forces. If a victim of crime wished to pursue an offender they could employ a "thief taker" who earned a living from such payments and, in the case of notorious offenders, the rewards offered by the courts. The novelist Henry Fielding, was appointed a magistrate in Westminster in 1748. His house at No. 4 Bow Street had been established as a courtroom in 1739 by the previous owner Sir Thomas de Veil. Fielding brought together eight trustworthy constables, who came to be known as the Bow Street Runners, and gave them the authority to enforce the decisions of magistrates. Fielding's blind half-brother Sir John Fielding (known as the "Blind Beak of Bow Street") succeeded his brother as magistrate in 1754 and refined the patrol into the first truly effective police force for the capital, although the Runners were still essentially magistrate's officers and not patrolling police officers.
By 1792 salaried constables were being paid by local magistrates, and 1798 saw the establishment of the Marine Police, a private body based in Wapping and organised primarily to police the docks and prevent the theft of cargo. This force later amalgamated with the Met to form its Thames Division, which still exists to patrol the river.
Image:Police.three.on.patrol.london.arp.jpg During the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution saw London become a much larger city. It became clear that the system of locally maintained constabularies was ineffective in the prevention and detection of crime amongst such a large population. Royal Assent was given to the Metropolitan Police Act on 19 June 1829. This act placed the policing of the capital directly under the control of the Home Secretary. The initial force consisted of around 1,000 men with instructions to patrol the streets within a seven mile radius of Charing Cross in order to prevent crime and pursue offenders. In 1857 the Commissioner Richard Mayne was paid a salary of £1,883, and his two Assistant Commissioners were paid salaries of £800 each [1].
The force continued to be controlled directly by the Home Secretary until 2000, when the newly created Greater London Authority was given responsibility for the force, by means of a Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). The MPA is made up of members appointed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly, and several independent members. However the Metropolitan Police Commissioner is still appointed by the Home Secretary.
On 1 April 2000, the boundaries of the MPD were altered to conform exactly with those of Greater London, excluding the City of London.
Police ranks
The Metropolitan Police uses the standard UK police ranks on shoulder boards up to Chief Superintendent, but it has five ranks above that level compared to the standard three.
- Police Constable (PC) (shoulder number)
- Acting Sergeant (two or three point down chevrons over shoulder number)
- Sergeant (Sgt or PS) (three point down chevrons over shoulder number)
- Inspector (Insp) (two stars of the Order of the Bath, informally known as pips)
- Chief Inspector (Ch Insp) (three pips)
- Superintendent (Supt) (crown)
- Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt) (crown over one pip)
- Commander (Cmdr) (Commander's badge: crossed tipstaves in a laurel wreath)
- Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) (one pip over Commander's badge)
- Assistant Commissioner (AC) (crown over Commander's badge)
- Deputy Commissioner (crown above two small pips, placed side-by-side, above Commander's badge)
- Commissioner (crown above one pip above Commander's badge) [2]
The prefix 'Woman' in front of female officers' ranks — as in Woman Police Constable (WPC) and Woman Police Sergeant (WPS) — is now obsolete. Members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) up to and including the rank of chief superintendent prefix their ranks with 'Detective'. Other departments, such as Special Branch and Child Protection, award non-detectives 'Branch Detective' status, allowing them to use the 'detective' prefix.
Image:Met police car 300px.jpg
Police numbers
The numbers of officers in the Metropolitan Police Service:
- 2005 — 30,265 regular police officers, 750 Special Constables, 500 traffic wardens, 1,430 Police Community Support Officers, 12,500 police staff
- 2003 — approximately 29,000
- 2001 — approximately 25,000 (London population 7,172,000)
- 1984 — approximately 27,000
Image:Police.boat.london.arp.jpg
See also
- British police
- Police
- UK topics
- Metropolitan police
- The Job (MPS newspaper)
- List of police forces in the United Kingdom
External link
| Police forces in England |
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East: Bedfordshire | Cambridgeshire | Essex | Hertfordshire | Norfolk | Suffolk East Midlands: Derbyshire | Leicestershire | Lincolnshire | Northamptonshire | Nottinghamshire London: City | Metropolitan North East: Cleveland | Durham | Northumbria North West: Cheshire | Cumbria | Greater Manchester | Lancashire | Merseyside South East: Hampshire | Kent | Surrey | Sussex | Thames Valley South West: Avon and Somerset | Devon and Cornwall | Dorset | Gloucestershire | Wiltshire West Midlands: Staffordshire | Warwickshire | West Mercia | West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber: Humberside | North Yorkshire | South Yorkshire | West Yorkshire |
| Police forces in Wales |
| UK-wide police forces |
ja:スコットランドヤード no:Metropoliice Service pt:Metropolitan Police Service
