Police Chain of Command

[Austin]

I was hoping that one of you most wonderful folk of the UK could enlighten a completely frazzled Yank....the chain of command, at least in 1888, had tied my brain in knots and given me a headache trying to unravel it. Please tell me where I am going wrong....

The rank and file PC reports to the Police Sergeant. Got that, so let's move up starting with the Division.

The Division, say H Division, reports to Scotland Yard, who reports to the Police Commissioner, who reports to the Home Office, who reports to the PM, who reports to, you got it...the Queen. If that is correct, then I have a couple of questions.

1) Where does the CID fit in, and who did they report to?
2) Just what the heck IS the Home Office? (Typical Yank question.)
3) Was there really a "Special Branch" (one too many movies?), and if so, what was their function? A precursor to the Secret Service?
4) Was/is Scotland Yard the equivalent of the US FBI in that they had/have jurisdiction everywhere?

I am sure something else will confuse me, but trying to get a grip on how the chain of command worked is giving me a bit of a headache.

Thanks!

Austin

[Austin]

PS

Oh, and just where did the London Police (City Police?) come into play and who did THEY report to?

Where are my aspirin.....

[lynn cates]

Special Branch

Hello Austin. Welcome to the boards.

The exact chain of command can better be explained by people like Stewart Evans and Neil Bell. But for #3, yes, "Special Branch" most certainly existed. They had, at one time, four parts. Of the four, one was there to keep an eye on the Irish situation. Some watched the ports; some watched anarchists.

A helpful book in this regard is Porter's "Origins of the Vigilant State."

Cheers.
LC

[Trevor Marriott]

Hi Lynn

Hello Austin. Welcome to the boards.

The exact chain of command can better be explained by people like Stewart Evans and Neil Bell. But for #3, yes, "Special Branch" most certainly existed. They had, at one time, four parts. Of the four, one was there to keep an eye on the Irish situation. Some watched the ports; some watched anarchists.

and those in Whitechapel stood and watched the stars at night !

A helpful book in this regard is Porter's "Origins of the Vigilant State."

Cheers.
LC

[Robert]

Welcome Austin. There is a very short intro here :

http://casebook.org/police_officials/mepo.html

[Austin]

Thanks, Robert. So, by reading that I am given to understand that the Met WAS/IS Scotland Yard. Is this then a correct assumption?

Oh, and relating to what the Home Office is....damn, but Google is a wonderful thing....

[Robert]

Hi Austin

Yes, if someone nowadays refers to "Scotland Yard," they normally mean the Metropolitan Police.

[Robert]

The Home Office is one of the three major Government departments (the other two being the Foreign Office and the Treasury). The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary. Its responsibilities include crime, the police, and immigration.

[Robert]

Austin, you may find this useful :

http://www.met.police.uk/history/

[Phil Carter]

Hello Austin,

Welcome to the boards.
The City Police were based in 6 stations within the square mile they patrolled.
Cripplegate, Snow Hill, Bridewell Place, Cloak Lane, Tower Street and Bishopsgate. These are the divisions that compare to the far greater Metropolitan Police Area Divisions.

In 1888 City Police consisted of about 900 men and the Met Police 13, 346 men (Dickens 1888, page 197), but in addition the 5 Dockyards had 760men doing duty.

Police Courts were at Bow Street, Clerkenwell, Dalston, Greenwich, Guildhall, Hammersmith, Lambeth, Mansion House Justice-Room, Marlborough Street, Marylebone, Southwark, Thames, Wandsworth, West Ham, Westminster, Woolwich and Worship Street.

Included in the Met Police Divisions there was the C.O. or Commissioners Office compsising of the Executive Branch, the Public Carraige Branch and the C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department). This combined Division included a total of 229 men- 43 Inspectors, 63 Sergeants and 120 Constables.

The City Police Office was at 26, Old Jewry, where as well as the Commissioner, a Chief Supt, a Receiver and a Chief Clerk.

The Met Police Office at 4, Whitehall Place, had a Commissioner, Ass Comms Anderson, Pearson, Bruce and Monro, a Legal Advisor, 4 Chief Constables plus Williamson C.I.D. , a Chief Clerk, a Reciever, a Surgeon-in Chief, an Acting Suryeyor, an Engineer, a Storekeeper, J.Mole; C.I.D. ; J. Shore Executive Branch, a Common Lodging House Branch Chief Inspector, Cutbush, a Publie Carraige Branch C.I.; Ware, and a Lost Property C.I., Beavis.

In addition Special Branch as previously described.

Hope some of this helps and doesnt add to the confusion!

Best wishes

Phil

[Wickerman]

The Home Office is one of the three major Government departments (the other two being the Foreign Office and the Treasury). The Home Office is headed by the Home Secretary. Its responsibilities include crime, the police, and immigration.

And if I may build on this to answer one of Austin's questions.

The City Police was headed by Commissioner Sir James Fraser, while the Met. Police was headed by Commissioner Sir Charles Warren, who both answered to the Home Secretary, Henry Matthews.

Under Sir James Fraser we have Assistant Commissioner Henry Smith.
Under Sir Charles Warren we have Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson.

Under Smith we have Inspector James McWilliams, Head of City Police Detectives.
Under Anderson we have Chief Inspector of CID at Scotland Yard, Donald Swanson.

McWilliams and Swanson, according to the words of both, sat in liason every night at Leman St. police station during the Whitechapel murders. Leman St. was the lead station for H Division.

Scotland Yard was just an address, its official name was Central Office for the Metropolitan Police Department.

Regards, Jon S.

[Monty]

I was hoping that one of you most wonderful folk of the UK could enlighten a completely frazzled Yank....the chain of command, at least in 1888, had tied my brain in knots and given me a headache trying to unravel it. Please tell me where I am going wrong....

The rank and file PC reports to the Police Sergeant. Got that, so let's move up starting with the Division.

The Division, say H Division, reports to Scotland Yard, who reports to the Police Commissioner, who reports to the Home Office, who reports to the PM, who reports to, you got it...the Queen. If that is correct, then I have a couple of questions.

1) Where does the CID fit in, and who did they report to?
2) Just what the heck IS the Home Office? (Typical Yank question.)
3) Was there really a "Special Branch" (one too many movies?), and if so, what was their function? A precursor to the Secret Service?
4) Was/is Scotland Yard the equivalent of the US FBI in that they had/have jurisdiction everywhere?

I am sure something else will confuse me, but trying to get a grip on how the chain of command worked is giving me a bit of a headache.

Thanks!

Austin

Hi Austin,

1) Where does the CID fit in, and who did they report to?

Jon (Wickerman), has pretty much covered this. CID suceded what was known as The Detective Branch (all to do with fraud which I wont go into unless you wish it). Initially CID worked directly to Howard Vincent (its creator) and then the Home Office. However, around 1888 it came under the Met Commissioners wing.

The Met is split into Divisions (Whitechapell is H Division) and each Division had a small Dectective force. City Police have a similar set up.

2) Has been covered.

3) Was there really a "Special Branch" (one too many movies?), and if so, what was their function? A precursor to the Secret Service?


Special Branch was born out of a a group formed to tackle the Fenian movement, named The Special Irish Branch, around the early 1880s.

Whilst is is a part of the Police Force they worked on their own and seperate within the force. They expanded from the Irish issues into more general terrorism issues. In their position they conducted lots of covert operations, and therefore may be party to certain pieces of information connected to the case.

4) Was/is Scotland Yard the equivalent of the US FBI in that they had/have jurisdiction everywhere?

Scotland Yard, as stated, was the HQ for The Metropolitan Police. There juristiction initially (in 1829) laid in 12 parishes of London within a 7 mile radius of Charing Cross but that was expanded to the whole of the Metropolis of London over time.

They have jurisdiction within that area apart from the City of London itself (The Square Mile), which comes under the City of London Police Force.

Oh, and just where did the London Police (City Police?) come into play and who did THEY report to?

The City force are seperate to the Met. The Met came into existance due to the 1829 Met force act (the re structuring of Policing within Lonon) however the act did not include the City as it governed itself in terms of Policing. However, it did restructure thanks to the City Police act of 1839 and followed the Met model of Commissioner/Divisions/CID ect.

The City has fought of many attempts to merge it with the Met however it still stands as a seperate force. At the time of the murders their HQ was The Old Jewry, their equivalent of Scotland Yard..

Whilst Sir James Fraser was the Commissioner for the City in 1888 at the time, Major Henry Smith was acting Commissioner due to Fraser being ill.



Monty

[PC Roadnight]

Detectives from Scotland Yard were often called upon as 'experts' by constabularies outside 'The Met', and Special Branch were also available to deal with 'terrorist' incidents throughout the UK, although neither were national forces in the sense that the FBI were (and are)

Most forces, especially by 1914, had their own SB units, particularly those with coastal ports, but these were usually augmented by short term postings from Scotland Yard officers.

The Political Police in Britain by Tony Bunyan is also useful reading on SB though he does have a somewhat left-biased viewpoint.