The Police: criticisms, accolades & how they functioned.

[Wickerman]

One article seeks to investigate how it came about that Scotland Yard adopted such an arms length attitude towards the press. While this in no way substitutes for historical research, these home grown articles do provide a street level interpretation of the cause.

OUR DETECTIVE SYSTEM.
The Old and the New - Some Criticisms by One who Knew Both.

Public discontent with our present detective system increases with every day that passes over without any satisfactory clue being obtained to the perpetrator or perpetrators of the latest Whitechapel horrors.

The rank and file of the detective force have generally to bear the brunt of all shortcomings connected with it, but from information in our possession it would appear that they are less to blame than the system - instituted by Mr. Howard Vincent and continued by his successors - under which they are compelled to work.

No doubt Mr. Vincent had very good reasons when he came into office for making changes in the old detective system, which had not altogether worked well. The conduct of certain notorious officers, who were once thought to be perfect, had exposed the detective force as a body to universal censure. The force, it was thought, wanted taking in hand, and the direction of a superior mind with more discipline seemed to be necessary. Things at Scotland-yard had got into a somewhat slipshod state as regards the detective force. Accordingly the whole system as it stood was overhauled, and

A NEW SET OF MEN

were enlisted to do detective duty. Where they came from nobody exactly knew. They had little or no experience of the work they were called upon to perform, their chief qualifications for detective work being, according to all accounts, a knowledge of foreign languages and a somewhat superior education to the average detective. Some of the old hands said that not a few of their new brethren had been nothing better than gentlemen's servants - in fact, had been gentlemen's servants - but perhaps that was only a little bit of sarcasm. However this may be, it is certain that the old hands did not fraternise with the new, and do not to any appreciable extent now; not did constables in uniform regard the new men with any favor, a feeling which was perhaps not limited to the rank and file of that branch of the force.

The detective of what may now be called the old school was more after the pattern of the celebrated Inspector Field,

"OLD CHARLEY FIELD,"

as he was familiarly called (the original of Mr. Inspector Bucket in "Bleak House"). Often not a very well-educated man, he yet had plenty of cunning, and made up for what he lacked in the shape of education and a knowledge of foreign languages by an extra amount of "nous." One of the most celebrated officers of the old school was the well-known Sergeant Walsh, who was attached to the M Division as Divisional Detective for many years. He had, it is said, been complimented by judges and juries time out of mind for his skill in bringing cases to a successful issue, and had received more than 80 solid rewards in the shape of good round sums of cash. Yet this old and well-tried officer was dismissed, or advised to resign, because a convicted thief who was undergoing a long sentence of imprisonment, declared that he had committed a crime that Walsh had brought home to the door of others (presumably his "pals"), and whose conviction he had secured, the convict well knowing that his confession would not aggravate very considerably, if at all, the term of punishment he was undergoing. It was a sore point with Walsh that the word of a convicted felon should be taken in preference to his after his many years of service; and it caused great dissatisfaction at the time amongst his brother officers, who considered that he had been sacrificed to the new official prejudice against officers of the old school.

This old officer had a peculiar way of his own of going about his business. He had a theory that when a crime was committed by any notorious character whose haunts were known, it was a mistake to look for him for a time in those haunts, for he would be sure to leave them until he thought he might safely return to them; for, he argued, return he would, and it was only a question of allowing him a reasonable time to come back to "drop upon him." Frequently, after the fashionable Scotland-yard detectives had failed to capture the man wanted after scouring the neighborhood of his haunts for weeks following the crime, has Walsh, acting upon his system, after giving him time to think the affair had blown over, succeeded in arresting him in his old haunts, to which he had returned.

Under the old system detectives remained permanently attached to a division in which they had gained their experience and fame, which is not the case now. They are being perpetually moved on, so to speak, by order of the central authorities at Scotland-yard to districts to which they are strangers, while fresh men, often mere novices in the profession, take their place, who are equally at sea in the districts in which they are called upon to work. The advantage of having a man attached permanently to a division was that he

KNEW THE CRIMINAL POPULATION

in the locality, and could put his hand in a moment upon anyone that was wanted. Long association with the district had made him familiar with the faces, ways, habits, haunts, and associates of doubtful characters, and a man who was "wanted," to use the professional term, had only to be described to be almost immediately pounced upon. As things are, it takes a long while for a new man to pick up all this knowledge. No doubt he does pick it up in time, but while he is picking it up he cannot be said to be of very much service in his new duties. It is impossible to divine what good purposes is served by this continual changing about. There may be some reason for it, but, if there is, it is only known at headquarters. The detectives affected by the changes are certainly in the dark as to the motives for making them, and so are we. It would be interesting to have them explained.

Another merit claimed for the old system was, that if a crime was committed within the limits of a particular division, the superintendent of that division had practically the management of the whole business of finding it out entrusted to him, at any rate; there was

NO VEXATIOUS INTERFERENCE

from Scotland-yard, which is not the case now. Instead, the whole direction of the affair is taken in hand by the authorities at Scotland-yard, and a number of superior detectives of the new stamp are sent down to make inquiries, who are, as a rule, utterly ignorant of the floating criminal population of the district, and are entirely dependent for the information they pick up on the local men, who are naturally, from the highest to the lowest, annoyed at the conduct of the affair being taken out of their hands, and indignant at the prospect that all the credit that may attach to its successful prosecution will be monopolised by the new comers. This jealous feeling often prevents the local men from giving information, and the feeling among them is, with respect to the Scotland-yard men, "Oh, find out what you want for yourself; we are not going to give you information for which

WE GET NO CREDIT."

Hence it is, that when a great crime is committed the smart detectives who are sent down from Scotland-yard to find out all about it are so often baffled.

The average detective has a profound contempt for his stylish brethren at Scotland-yard, who are in his opinion very poor thief-catchers, though he admits that the knowledge of foreign languages which they nearly all possess may to a certain extent qualify them for "extradition business." If he is correct, it is a pity that they are not entirely confined to that sort of duty.

It is a general complaint of divisional detectives that when engaged in a case they are not allowed sufficient freedom to carry out their own theories. Hints and suggestions as to what should be done are not always well received by those over them, and a snub is often the result. Consequently their ardor cools and they simply do what they are told, and that is all. Amongst the many things that cause dissatisfaction among the police outside Scotland-yard is the

SYSTEM OF FAVORITISM

that seems to be in fashion there. Thus, when a local inspector resigns, or perhaps dies, the two senior sergeants next to him in rank, who ought to be moved up in rotation, are not promoted; but, instead, a junior sergeant from Scotland-yard who has ingratiated himself with the authorities there, is preferred to the vacant post.

It may be said, in conclusion, that the system of criminal investigation introduced by Mr. Howard Vincent, and still in vogue, does not give satisfaction to the police generally, whether in uniform or plain clothes, outside the sacred precincts of Scotland-yard, any more than it does to the public, and that the new fashioned detective is not any improvement, if he is so good even, at the class of man he has pushed aside. The exact sort of detective system and the exact sort of detective it seems has yet to be discovered.
Star, 18 Sept. 1888.

[Wickerman]

Four days later, The Daily News appeared to respond in their own way with a more grounded opinion.

LONDON DETECTIVES

In its present form the London Detective Police is the outcome of the Commission of Inquiry appointed in consequence of the "great detective scandal" in 1877, when three members of the force were proved beyond all doubt to have been in league with a gang of swindlers. The Report of that Commission was never made public, but it was generally understood that all its recommendations for the reorganization of this branch of the metropolitan police were adopted. Under the vigorous hand of Mr. Howard Vincent, at that time a comparatively unknown man, a hard worker, and an earnest Liberal, every detail of the department was subject to some degree of alteration and adjustment. There was scarcely a book or a printed form used in the service that was not subject to some sort of change, and not an office or an officer that did not come under close scrutiny. The investigation was generally held by those who know about such matters to have resulted in the adoption of many improvements on the working of the detective department; but any such alterations as could be taken to indicate that in the opinion of the Commission of Inquiry there had been in the past prevalent corruption or gross maladministration were certainly not made; and it may be said, in round terms, that the London plain clothes police of today are pretty much what they were when the were initiated in August 1842. Perhaps the most important change consisted in an attempt to weld the whole detective force into one body. Formerly every superintendent had a few men in plain clothes under his own immediate control. The number varied according to the extent and character of the division. They were selected by the superintendent from among his own uniformed men, and acted entirely under his direction, and of course only within the limits of his jurisdiction. They were under the command of the superintendent, and were directly controlled by him and not by the central authorities at Scotland yard, where there was a separate force of 30 men. These constituted a part of the A Division in theory, but in fact were entirely directed by a superintendent of their own. There were this 18 or 20 separate detachments of detectives under as many different chiefs, and, it was sometimes felt, not invariably working as harmoniously or advantageously as could be desired.

From the 8th of April, 1878, all this was changed, in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission, and the control of all plain clothes officers placed in the hands of the new Criminal Investigation Department. As now constituted, the ordinary detective force of the metropolis consists of somewhere about 400 men, distributed among the various divisions as before. Added to these, however, there are in the winter season a further force of about 300 plain clothes men. These are known as the "winter patrol," and they are of course drawn from the uniformed ranks. Men who show themselves especially smart and intelligent at ordinary police duty are selected for the winter patrol, and if in this capacity of temporary detective officers they are found exceptionally efficient they are marked for permanent service as vacancies may arise. This is how then detectives are recruited. They are all men who have originally been in the uniformed branch of the service, and have been selected for their peculiar aptitude for detective work. In each division there are a small number of them under the immediate control of a "local inspector," who, though of course subordinate to the divisional superintendent and amenable to his authority, is specially charged with the personal management of the plain clothes men, and, according at least to the original scheme, was supposed to be the divisional representative of the Director of Criminal Investigations, and to be in immediate communication with the central office. He was supposed to take all his instructions from Scotland yard, and thus it was expected that the entire Metropolitan detective force would be welded into one whole harmonious body, working without any clashing or waste of energy, and under the guidance of a complete knowledge of all that was going on all over the police area. Practically this scheme has broken down. In theory it looked very promising, but actual experience showed that it would not work. Criminal investigation could not be thus centralized, and to a very large extent detective work has got back to a divisional basis. One feature of the original arrangement has, however, remained. The local inspectors from all the divisions meet from time to time at Scotland yard for conference. The object of this is to promote harmonious working, and to afford to every inspector the means of making himself acquainted with all that is going on in the way of criminal enterprise all over the police district, and the doings of officers with whom he is assumed to be co-operating. Every morning at ten o'clock a "morning report" is sent in to Scotland yard by each divisional superintendent, stating the particulars of all crimes within his territory during the preceding twenty four hours. These reports - representing perhaps from sixty to a hundred crimes every morning - are laid before the Assistant Commissioner who has now taken control of the Criminal Department instead of the "Director." The Assistant Commissioner carefully scrutinises every item, and forthwith issues such instructions as may seem to be required for the investigation of any case, when necessary setting to work the divisional detectives. Usually of course this devolves upon the divisional superintendent or the local inspector. It can rarely happen that the Central Office can know more about a crime than the officers actually on the spot, and, as it has been said, the necessary work of criminal detection is practically divisional, and directed and supervised by the local inspector. The duties of the men in a general way lie within their own divisional boundaries, though in the pursuit of a criminal or in the investigation of a crime circumstances may take them beyond the limit.

The Scotland yard detectives are on a different footing. Originally they were all sergeants. Now there are none of them - except those in the Convict Office - below the rank of inspector. There are altogether about 80 of all ranks attached to Scotland yard. Under the old system, though they were nominally a part of the A Division, they had superintendent of their own, and were virtually a distinct body. Like all other plain clothes officers they are now under the immediate control of an Assistant Commissioner. They are no longer even nominally attached to the Whitehall Division, but constitute a division of their own - the "C.O." or Central Office division, and their work gives them an altogether exceptional position. In very rare and special cases, these men, by immediate order of the Home Secretary, lend their assistance to provincial police. An instance of this, which will be in the memory of most newspaper readers of the past few years, was presented in the notorious Road murder, when an old officer went down and, after minute inquiries, expressed his emphatic opinion that Constance Kent was the criminal, an opinion in which nobody at that time agreed, and which drew upon the veteran officer a good deal of opprobrium and ridicule. The confession of the girl, it will be remembered, afterwards completely established the shrewdness and accuracy of this conclusion. These occasions are, however, exceedingly rare. In a general way the functions of Scotland yard officers are confined to the metropolitan area, and the gentlemen in novels who are so frequently telegraphing from all sorts of out of the way corners of the earth for the assistance of a Scotland yard detective would in real life get for an answer - if they got answered at all - that all branches of the Metropolitan Police have quite enough of their own business to attend to without scouring the country in pursuit of other people's. The men are constantly engaged in the investigation of burglaries, embezzlements, frauds and forgeries, larcenies, murders, receiving stolen property, and all offences under the Coinage Act. In addition to these and a hundred other criminal matters of less frequent occurrence, they institute inquiries within their own territory respecting offences committed outside. They have all sorts of investigations to carry on for various Government Departments, as well as for foreign Governments and police, the correspondence in connection with which, it may be here noted in passing, used to be conducted by a staff of Civil Service clerks, but it is now a part of the work of Scotland yard, which answers every foreign latter in the language in which it is written. Among other duties the detectives of the "C.O. Division" inquire into all applications of foreigners for naturalisation, and they attend all sorts of popular gatherings, where of course a personal knowledge of the criminal fraternity is a matter of great importance. At one time it was the custom for one detective from Scotland yard and one from each of the divisions to go round twice a week in an omnibus to the metropolitan prisons for the purpose of scrutinising prisoners on remand or about to be released. Remand prisoners are still visited in this way, with a view of determining whether they are known to the known; but those who have undergone their punishment and are being discharged are no longer scrutinised by detectives.

It is a mistake to suppose, as many people do apparently, that detective officers spend their pleasant days in wandering to and fro in the earth, with plenty of money in their pockets, and nothing to do but go wherever their inclination leads them. At the commencement of each month every man is provided with a diary, in which he is required to keep day by day an account of all his movements - the investigations in which he has been engaged, the results of his efforts, the journeys he has made, the expense he has incurred, and so forth. The local inspector is also required to keep an independent record of the doings of his men. All these diaries used to be sent to headquarters for scrutiny; but, as may easily be imagined, nothing much came of that, and the practice has been discontinued. Indeed here, as in almost every other point at which efforts at centralisation were made when the system were reorganized, arrangements have broken down. It has been found by long experience that the only men who can possibly exercise effective control or give useful direction to plain clothes officers in the investigation of crime are those on the spot and working with them. The idea that on a special emergency the Home Secretary or Scotland yard can issue special instructions or set at work special agencies is mere folly. All that the very best management can do it to see to it that at all times the keenest, cleverest men are systematically drafted into this branch of the service, and when exceptionally difficult cases arise to concentrate the efforts of men picked from the whole force - the creme de la creme - and let them work pretty much in their own way. All the details of the everyday work of a London detective are, as much as possible, kept under close supervision; but it is quite obvious that these men must have greater freedom of action than ordinary policemen. They have also more interest and variety in their work and they have a much higher rate of pay - advantages, all of which they may lose if they show themselves on any important occasion conspicuously lacking in shrewdness or energy; while an exceptional success means credit and possible promotion and sometimes considerable reward. It is always easy to ridicule failure, but it is not easy to suggest the means that should be taken to ensure invariable success.
The Daily News, 22 Sept. 1888.

[Wickerman]

The Star, then published a follow-up article to their Sept. 18th publication. One again, viewed with a critical eye.

OUR POLICE AND DETECTIVE SYSTEM.

In The Star of 18 Sept. we pointed out some of the shortcomings of our existing detective system. We now supplement our remarks with other facts bearing on the detective as well as the police system generally, which are within our knowledge.

The present head of the Criminal Investigation Department is Mr. Anderson, who succeeded Mr. Monro. The actual working chief of the department is Superintendent Williamson, who has had some 40 years experience in the detective force, and is generally allowed to be a very capable officer.

Possibly neither of these officials is responsible for the unsatisfactory system that prevails. The names of those really responsible, if not for its inception, at least for its continuance, are pretty well known; but more responsible than either of these offenders is the perverse Tory Government that persists in retaining them in office while everybody is crying out for their dismissal.

Our police as a body are merely machines, and they know it. As an illustration of this let us take the system of

"FIXED POINTS."

At the principal points of all the great thoroughfares - for instance, at the Elephant and Castle - one or more constables are always stationed ready for emergencies; but they are not allowed to move away any distance under any pretext whatever, even though it might be to follow suspicious characters whom they might observe plotting "a job."

The police are so fenced in by rules and regulations that they seem to be afraid to act on their own responsibility in a grave emergency. If a deadly fight is taking place in a house they will not enter unless they hear cries of "Murder." If a lodger calls a policeman's attention to the fact that murder is being committed he is asked if he is the landlord, and if he says no, then he is told that the policeman has no authority to enter the house unless invited to do so by the landlord or his deputy. It is quite common in low neighborhoods for a woman to come up to a policeman in the dead of the night and ask him to come with her to her lodgings because her husband, or so-called husband, is there, mad drunk, threatening to murder her. The policeman looks at her, mentally studies his code-book, and tells her to go back, and that no doubt it will be all right.

A few words here as to the general system adopted in setting about

THE INVESTIGATION OF A MURDER MYSTERY,

such as the latest Whitechapel one and the others that have preceded it, may not be out of place.

The detectives from Scotland-yard go down to the station in the locality of the crime, and they and the chiefs and detectives of the police whom they have come to assist have a consultation. Each suggests what is the best way to set to work, and finally a theory is adopted and acted upon. People who are supposed to know something bearing on the case are invited to give evidence, and everything they say is taken down - sometimes openly, sometimes by a concealed shorthand writer. If they are suspected of knowing more than they care to disclose, they are treated in a friendly manner, and pleasantly invited to come again. Meanwhile their movements are closely watched.

The services of "noses" - that is to say, people who are hand in glove with persons of indifferent character, are frequently called into play, and they are deputed to go to the low lodging-houses and other places that are the resort of low characters, and keep their eyes and ears open for anything likely to give a clue to the individual or individuals wanted. Women often act as "noses."

In investigating a crime,

DETECTIVES PROCEED VERY QUIETLY -

often too quietly, it might be thought - and frequently through the agency of too credulous reporters lead the really suspected person to believe that the scent lies quite in another quarter, while in reality his every movement is being closely watched. In some instances, the reluctance of witnesses to come forward with evidence is a great stumbling block in the way of success.

The police are generally held responsible for the particular kind of evidence that is brought against a person charged with committing a crime when the case goes for trial, but it seems they are not responsible for the line adopted by the prosecution.

The duties of detectives sometimes cast their lines in pleasant places. At noblemen's balls helmeted policemen keep the doors, but the detective, in dress coat and kid gloves, enters with the company. It is not generally known that even at

BALLS GIVEN BY THE HIGHEST NOBILITY,

by Ambassadors, and the most exclusive of the "Upper Ten," a detective in evening dress, with a bland smile on his face, and his moustache curled in the most aggravating fashion, stalks about and makes a note of divers things.
The Star, 3 Oct. 1888.

[Wickerman]

Although this quote has appeared elsewhere, I may repeat it here as the correct location for this detail.


Howard Vincent, the founding director of the reformed C.I.D., 1878, laid down the rule that:

" Police must not on any account give any information, whatever, to gentlemen connected with the press, relative to matters within police knowledge, or relative to duties to be performed or orders received, or communicate in any manner, either directly or indirectly, with editors, or reporters of newspapers, on any matter connected with the public service, without express or special authority...."
A Police Code and Manual of the Criminal Law, 1881, Vincent, p. 253., or for a brief extract see Sugden, p. 71.

[Wickerman]

The Police unable to arrest streetwalkers for solicitation.

The police are under orders not to arrest prostitutes on sight, for solicitation.
A complaint must first be made.


The state of our London streets at night is an old subject and a sore one. It cannot be said that at any time within memory of living man their condition has been particularly creditable to the greatest capital in the world. Still, there certainly was a time, and that not very long ago, when things were very much less disgraceful than they are now. The seamy side of London life which is revealed to anybody whose homeward way lies through Regent-street or Piccadilly at midnight is positively shameful. Cases (one in particular our readers will remember which is not yet decided) are continually arising of riot and assault by women as well as men; and the police are powerless to prevent solicitation and annoyance. The reason is that since the "Cass Case" the constables have orders to arrest no women for solicitation unless they are actually given in charge, a step which is not always easy or safe to take. The consequence is that it is impossible for any decent man to go quietly along without being accosted, and perhaps assaulted, by women and their male companions. This must be altered and the absurd order to the police rescinded. Otherwise there will be nothing done but to form a strong vigilance committee to obtain evidence in a sufficient number of cases to strike terror into these evil birds of the night. At present respectable people are practically at their mercy.
The People, 15 April, 1888.

[Wickerman]

Interview or interrogation?

POLICE GETTING INFORMATION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ECHO.

SIR, - In your issue of Saturday, the 18th Inst., it is reported that Mr. Hannay, the learned Magistrate of Marlborough-street Police-court objected to the manner in which Detective-Sergeant Greet proceeded to interrogate a person prior to arrest. The point is a most important one, and to the mind of the ordinary police officer it certainly reads like a general denunciation of the practice of interrogation. A remark was also made by the solicitor for the defence that "it was like the French style of doing business."

After a little experience in police matters, I should say that, in the interests of justice, and for the swifter and more complete unravelment of crime, it seems a pity that we cannot have a little more of the "French style of doing business"; the catalogue of undiscovered crimes would perhaps be a somewhat smaller one if a leaf were taken from the "French" book. Police officers are much hampered by individual magisterial opinion like this, but according to higher authorities the detective who keeps strictly within the law need have no fear.

In "The Manual of Criminal Law," edited by Mr. Howard Vincent (late Director of Criminal Investigation) under the heading of "Determination of Arrest," it is stated "when once the mind of an officer is made up to arrest a delinquent, he must not be asked any questions without a strict caution that the answer may be used against him; but, as was stated in effect by the late Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, at the Central Criminal Court on July 16, 1870, if you ask a man questions with an honest intention to elicit the truth, and to ascertain whether there are grounds for apprehending him, it is quite a different thing to asking questions with a foregone intention to arrest." Now it is distinctly stated in evidence that the first thing the officer did was to caution him. After this caution, and having no distinct intention to arrest, he was surely entitled to interrogate.

Further, Sir Harry Hawkins, in his valuable introduction to the manual above quoted, says:- "When a crime has been committed, and you are engaged in endeavouring to discover the author of it, there is no objection to your making enquiries, or putting questions to, any person from whom you think you can obtain information; it is your duty to discover the criminal if you can, and to do this you must make such enquiries, and if in the course of them you should chance to interrogate, and to receive answers, they are nevertheless admissible in evidence, and may be used against him." The conduct of the officer proves that he had no foregone intention to arrest before the questions were put, as it is stated that he retired and consulted Mr. Jay before the arrest took place. Sergeant Greet is one of our few capable investigators and I am glad to see that he is not afraid to use the delicate weapon of interrogation. - Yours, &c., ANOTHER P.-S.
Echo, 20 August, 1888.

[Wickerman]

How the press perceive the stringent measures enforced by Sir Charles Warren on the Metropolitan force, and its effects on the men, and how they function.

SIR CHARLES WARREN AND HIS MEN

The retirement of Mr. James Monro, C.C., from the Metropolitan Police, gazetted on Tuesday evening, must, we fear, be regarded as an outward and visible sign of the general discontent, well known to have been growing of late throughout the body of which Mr. Monro was one of the most distinguished chiefs. The late head of the Criminal Investigation Department is a man of great ability and wide experience, and though he has not held the position for any great length of time he has managed to render very valuable service to the public. He has been greatly respected and trusted by his men, and his loss at Scotland Yard it is universally felt will be very difficult to make good.

It is possible that Mr. Monro may have had more than one reason for his resignation; but within the Metropolitan Police there is only one reason assigned, and it is generally believed to be entirely due to friction with the Chief Commissioner. When the Criminal Investigation Department was first organized Mr. Howard Vincent was put at the head of it, practically unfettered by any control save that of the Home Secretary. He was second only to the Chief Commissioner, and was empowered to correspond directly with the Home Office. Sir Edmund Henderson fell in very readily with this arrangement, and he and the director of the Criminal Investigation department worked together very amicably and smoothly virtually as two Commissioners. When Mr. Vincent retired and Mr. Monro took over his functions as an actual Commissioner the same working arrangement prevailed. The new head of the department, like his predecessor, was, of course, accustomed to consult his fellow chiefs when occasion required it, but could and did if he chose to treat directly with the Home Office, and take his own course, and as before the arrangement worked with perfect smoothness and satisfaction. The new Chief Commissioner came, however, to his post evidently strong in the conviction that the whole police system needed complete overhauling and rearranging. His subordinates cordially recognised his great ability as an administrator, his boundless energy, his high character, and the chivalrous readiness he has always shown to stand by his men whenever and wherever he believes they are right. But they also say that he is a soldier fresh from military command, and of a decidedly martinet type. When he came to Scotland Yard he soon made it felt that there, as in the tented field, everything and everybody must be subordinate, and must act only under the general in charge. Mr. Monro was expected to fall into line, and to march at the word of command. With special abilities for his work, special experience, and such success as had obtained for him distinction from the Queen, this he naturally resented. The result was friction and growing irritation, and it is said that the immediate occasion of his retirement was that Sir Charles Warren distinctly snubbed him before the superintendents of the force. This is a plain statement made by those who are in the best position to know the facts of the matter, and they affirm, moreover, that this is fairly illustrative of the whole course of action by the Chief Commissioner ever since he took office. He has undoubtedly shown himself a strong and an upright man, but all his ideas of government and discipline are of a strict and rigorous military type. Everything done by the force must be done by him. With the best possible intentions, he rides roughshod over everybody's feelings and susceptibilities, and some of his oldest and ablest superintendents feel themselves under a military despotism quite new to their experience. Every detail of the service has been upset, and they are in continual receipt of "Orders" and circulars, the study and carrying out of which they find add very greatly to their work and anxiety. All sorts of petty details of the service, formerly left very much to the direction of the officers, are made the subject of stringent and minute instructions. No doubt this is felt to be the more irksome and vexatious from the fact that by general consent the late Chief Commissioner was somewhat easy going.

This sort of thing by itself would probably not, however, have given rise to any very grave dissatisfaction. But there is combined with it another ground of complaint which has done much to prevent Sir Charles Warren obtaining to that popularity with his chief officers to which his personal merits undoubtedly entitle him. Formerly there was no official rank between that of Commissioner and Superintendent. In 1869, however, four District Superintendents were appointed, each of whom was supposed to have a sort of general supervision over so many districts. It was pretty patent to everybody that the District superintendent was the fifth wheel in the coach. The office was wholly unnecessary, and was generally recognised merely as a means of enabling four of the superintendents to take a step up in the world, and so to make room for the promotion of four chief inspectors. So needless were these new posts that as they became vacant in course of time Sir Edmund Henderson did not fill them up. Sir Charles Warren, however, has practically filled up these vacancies by the appointment of four "chief constables," to which appointment he has added two more under the designation of assistant chief constables. All these places have been made for military men who have been brought in from outside and put over the heads of old and tried officers of the force, who as a matter of course resent it as an injustice. One of these newly appointed officials has been put in receipt of a fairly good income as Instructor of Police Recruits, and is said to have had no experience whatever of policemanship. Moreover, as a further illustration of the extent to which the military spirit is now dominant in the metropolitan force, it is complained that almost all the recruits now taken into the service are army reserve men. Thus from above and from below the military element is rapidly being infused into that which always has been, and which undoubtedly ought to remain, purely a civil force. This is quite a new departure, and as time goes on and the police force becomes more and more composed of men who have gone through short service in the army, and more and more permeated by military ideas and controlled by military methods, it is predicted that the hitherto satisfactory relations between the police and the general public must inevitably undergo a serious change. Many of the best officers of the force with whom it has been a valued tradition that the police are the servants and not the masters of the public, and who have always made it a point of great importance that the force should stand well with the people of London, have been vexed and irritated to find themselves brought into conflicts which, though undoubtedly necessary under the circumstances, would have been avoided by a greater exercise of discretion and tact.

It must be understood that we are not intending to endorse all this. We are merely giving expression to what, after no little inquiry, we find to be the feeling of the principal officers of the Metropolitan Police; while as to the rank and file, they are equally emphatic in their denunciation of the rigour with which Sir Charles Warren comes down upon them fir breaches of discipline. There is one point upon which the wisdom of the new Chief Commissioner's action seems to be condemned with singular unanimity by both officers and men. It is well known that for any policeman, to take a glass of beer when on duty without the permission of his sergeant is a breach of rule. It has hitherto been treated, however, pretty much on the merits of each case. Sometimes a reprimand or a warning has been sufficient for a first offense, to be followed for a second by a fine perhaps of five shillings. Sir Charles Warren has laid down the rule, to be applied with inexorable severity, that any man taking "refreshment" contrary to rule is to be reduced in grade for six months, and if a first class constable for a period of two years. This not only knocks off a serious amount from the weekly pay, but if at any time during the punishment the man should become entitled to pension, it reduces the amount of his pension perpetually. Of course, it may be said with great truth that for a policeman to be found drinking while on duty is a grave offence, and undoubtedly it is an offence closely allied with treating and corruption. On the other hand, it may sometimes be a venal, if not an excusable, thing for a man after a long spell of wearisome duty to take a glass of beer with or without the leave of his sergeant. It must obviously depend a good deal upon the circumstances. At all events, it is with the laws of a police force very much as it is with the laws of a community - they can only work satisfactorily when those upon whom they are imposed feel that the penalty is reasonably commensurate with the gravity of the offence. In this case, both officers and men regard the punishment as unduly severe, and the popularity of the Chief Commissioner has been much impaired by it. Nobody denies that Sir Charles Warren has splendid gifts, or that he is actuated by a lofty ideal of duty, and in many ways his men admire and respect him; but he is every inch a soldier, and he is beyond all question working great mischief in the force by forgetting that it is a civil and not a military body with which he has to deal, and that the autocratic high handed bearing which may be appropriate enough for the army may be wholly inappropriate for the police.
Daily News, 31 August, 1888.