ABSTRACT
When the reform of the police in provincial towns during the second quarter of the nineteenth century is discussed, it is usually suggested that the new London police was so effective that after 1829 criminals migrated en masse to other parts of the country, with the result that the police in the boroughs was reformed in 1835. The Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, required the council of a borough, immediately after their first election, to appoint a sufficient number of their own body who together with the mayor were to be the watch committee for the borough. The Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, set no maximum or minimum to the number of police to be appointed, as did the County Police Act, 1839, with its maximum of one police officer for 1,000 inhabitants. There were drawbacks inherent in a system under which a committee of the town council possessed and often exercised the power to appoint, promote and dismiss police officers.
