ABSTRACT
The Metropolitan Police (hereafter the Met) was from the beginning of the ‘new police’ the largest force, though its relative predominance gradually diminished, it remained a dominant presence in the policing scene and for many years was a distinctive and in some respects remote institution to other forces. This chapter charts how the Met interacted with the work of other forces and influenced their Chief Constables over a period of nearly 200 years. It concentrates on two dimensions: first, personnel, examining the flow and exchange of Metropolitan officers when relatively junior Met officers were despatched to seed and lead the small and mainly urban provincial forces created post-1835 to the ‘Hendon diaspora’ 100 years later. Second, services, including the Met’s contributions to certain developed specializations and so-called ‘imperial’ functions. It shows that the force’s relative status changed as the other forces matured in size and capacity. As ‘police forces’ gradually developed into a more integrated ‘police service’, the Met’s hosting of certain national functions saw the latter increasingly given a more autonomous status outside the Met. During a long process of police professionalization, the Met incubated and developed services in a system where the Home Office, its police authority until 2000, treated it as a surrogate national force.
