History of english police training

Most nineteenth-century policemen in England received such trai­ning as they got on the job. London Metropolitan Police was probably the most advanced in the instruction of recruits. But the instructi­on in that time lasted for only two weeks, largely concentrated on drill and sword exercise with two afternoon lectures by a superinten­dent, and a considerable amount of legal material to learn by rote.

Following this, the new constable patrolled with an experienced man for about a week. He was then moved to his division and sent out on his own. A section house reserved for candidates to the force was opened in 1886 with an assistant chief constable appointed as instruc­tor.

The training lasted from three to five weeks beginning each mor­ning with two hours drill. It was not until May 1907 that a proper training school was established for the Metropolitan Police with the opening the Peel House. By the 1920s recruits studied at Peel House for ten weeks. There continued to be drill and route learning, but there were regular lectures, instruction on first aid, self-defense, how to draft reports, and even mock accidents were staged.

After this initial training the new constable was again introdu­ced to patrolling in his division by going out with an experienced man. On-the-job-training was much the same in provincial forces of England. Some borough forces employed local schoolmasters to give instru­ctions on reading, writing and arithmetic.

In February 1895 the Chief Constable set an examination for those men wishing promotion to Constable of First Class. Correspondent colle­ges, notably the Bennet College in Sheffield and the institution estab­lished by Thomas Walton also in Sheffield, developed courses specially for policemen. The first styled itself "The Policeman’s University", the second – "The policeman’s College".

The development of half a dozen more training schools lead to a greater uniformity in training, especially when the smaller forces be­gan to take advantage of them.

However, it was not until the Second World War that police trai­ning was fully systematized across the whole country, and not until 1960s that the formal system of police cadets was established.

Police authorities

Each force has a police authority – a kind of governing body. The police authority of a county force is known as the Standing Joint Committee and is composed of representatives of the county council and the county justices of the peace, in equal numbers. The size of the Standing Joint Committee is not laid down by statute: the justices and the county councillors are to settle the number between them. The Committee is normally re-elected every third year after a new county council has been appointed.

In the boroughs, the police authority is a committee of the borough council, known as the Watch Committee. A Watch Committee may not be composed of more than one-third of the members of the council together with the mayor who is ex ’officio a member. Most Watch Committees are elected annually, though there is no statutory requirement to this effect.

The police authority for the Metropolitan police district is the Secretary of State for the Home Department – not the London County Council. In the City of London, which maintains its own force, the police authority is the Common Council of the City, that is the body corresponding most closely to the town council elsewhere.

Although the local police authority is responsible for the administration and maintenance of its force, the central govern­ment nevertheless plays an important part. The Home Secretary – the Minister primarily concerned with the maintenance of the peace – also makes regulations, with the approval of Parliament, governing the conditions of service (pay, discipline, promotion, etc.) of all police officers. And his department main­tains certain common services for the benefit of all police forces in such matters as training, radio-telephony and scien­tific investigation.

The Home Secretary thus exercises a general controlling and coordinating authority over the police of England and Wales. The responsibility for peace and order may be said to be shared between the local police authorities and the Home Secretary. And it is the Home Secretary who is generally responsible to Parliament for the maintenance of law and order throughout the country as a whole.