Met. v. City?

[Steven Russell]

I've often wondered just how much the JTR investigation was damaged by there being two separate forces involved.

Was the relationship between Metropolitan and City police, generally speaking, co-operative, copmpetitive, mutually ditrustful, or what? And would the answer be the same at grass-roots and command levels?

Apart from the obvious relevance to the night of the double event, I wonder how far say a Met. officer would be constrained by jurisdictional considerations if conducting enquiries in City territory. A retired policeman I know assures me that an officer has no authority over a junior officer from a different force. Was this the case back in 1888?

I have read that in the US, the involvement of several different law enforcement agencies can seriously hinder the detection and capture of offenders. If such was the case in Victorian London, did Jack use it to his advantage or was he just lucky? Or are we making way too much of the whole Met. v. City angle?

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

Hey Steven,

I'm probably not the right person to be answering a question like this, but from what I understand, there wasn't a great deal of co-operation amongst the police force during the Ripper murders - in fact, they were a bit of a shambles, and that would ultimately have had an effect on the success, or lack of it, in their search for Jack.

For instance, you had DC Daniel Halse arguing with Sir Charles Warren in Goulston Street about whether the graffito should be washed off or not (which Sir Charles ultimately won, probably incorrectly.)

You had James Monro resigning and being replaced by Robert Anderson, who then very quickly decided to go and have a month's holiday in Switzerland while the Ripper murders were happening back in London.

Then there was the resignation of Sir Charles Warren himself literally on the eve of the MJK murder.

Among many other instances.....it really was a tough time in general for the police force, both internally and in the minds of the press and public.

Cheers,
Adam.

[PC Roadnight]

In my experience The City force had a very parochial attitude towards the Met. Although individuals (particularly in the respective CID departments) may have had good working relationships for the most part there was little contact encouraged across the boundaries.

City PCs referred (in the post war period at least) to the Met as
'Metro-gnomes' because of their lesser height requirements. At the same time most bordering Met officers regarded the City PCs as 'doorknob shakers', this being regarded as their main duty after The City emptied of people after 5pm.

Plus all forces strictly regulated beat boundaries and even in the 1960s PCs could be disciplined and fined for 'being off your beat'. Not a good recipe for inter-force cooperation!