ABSTRACT
The 1828 Parliamentary Committee was responsible to the Home Secretary Robert Peel and produced a report with determination and authority, using his previous experience of setting up a police force in Ireland. It pointed out that however efficient the system of individual parochial police forces might be, they were incapable of coming together for the benefit of the whole metropolis, especially to ensure public order. A supplementary Act relieved the Bow Street Magistrate of directing the Horse and Foot Patrols, which were transferred to the new police office at Westminster, known as Scotland Yard, charged with supervising police machinery in the Metropolis. By 1839, the success of the Metropolitan Police led to their absorption of other roles: suppression of gaming houses, disorderly houses and illegal games such as cock fighting, regulating fairs and street musicians. The First World War itself contributed to unrest in the police, which led to strikes in 1918/1919.
