Police In The Anglo-Saxon Period

The way the United Kingdom is policed has changed drastically over time. I will give a short history of the police from the Anglo-Saxon era through the 18th and 19th centuries and up to modern times and will attempt to explain how the way policing has developed has had an effect on police philosophy and contemporary policing structures. There are several aspects of the police of today which have been impacted by the way the force has formed and changed over time.
In the Anglo-Saxon era there was no formal policing structure, and the way the law was enforced would be unrecognisable today. Before 1285 a lot of these practises were already in place but the Statute of Winchester which was brought in the same year made them law. The statute stated …show more content…
The public were largely in opposition to this move as there were doubts that they had the ability to deal with disorder, although the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 gave reason for a group to be formed to deal with riots. The military, who had only been trained in combat and not riot control, had charged a large crowd, killing 15 people and injuring hundreds more. For this reason the police’s uniforms were deliberately coloured blue in place of the distinctive red of the military, and this has lasted to the present day contributing to the police’s high levels of visibility in the community. Along with this difference, titles within the police force did not have a militaristic style, with the exception of …show more content…
They were nicknamed ‘Peelers’ and ‘Bobbies’ after their founder and kept up a presence in the community, which was seen as important as it helped to maintain trust and a sense of protection between the police and the public. The phrase ‘bobbies on the beat’ exists to this day, referring to police patrolling the streets. Peel also thought it was vital that officers could be held accountable for his actions and so issued each with an identification number. This was one of his ‘Peelian principles’ which were his guidelines for proper policing. This included the effectiveness of the police being measured by a lack of crime instead of the number of arrests, something which has continued as a characteristic of modern policing, the emphasis being on prevention rather than punishment, although since the 1980s there has been a rise in the police being made to meet arrest targets. Trust and accountability were something Peel thought to be of utmost importance, leading to him being quoted as saying “the police are the public and the public are the police”. This ‘publicness’ has since been emphasised as a major part of how the police conduct themselves. The hierarchical structure of the Metropolitan Police is an aspect which has been copied throughout the world and has survived since their