M/cr Police escorting suffragettes in the early 1900s
Introduction - Police Personnel
This subject examines some of the various personnel functions within the Manchester Police. The development of the Victorian police station was as much dependent on those officers and civilians who utilised the estate as the councillors and aldermen who directed policy and allocated the public funds to build and maintain it. The following sections will evidence that operational police work and lessons learnt from its implementation coupled with external social reforms, determined not only the location and number of the stations but their function and design.
During the Victorian period the force was led by the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, four divisional superintendents and the Head of Detective Office (detective superintendent), a total of seven officers. 'Rank and file' officers namely constables, sergeants and inspectors made up the entire operation officers of the force. Although significant levels of discipline existed it is the operational capabilities of these men that ultimately determined the strategic decisions of the Watch Committee and senior officers.
There was no doubting the formidable physical duties rank and file officers encountered and the police estate evolved to best deal with their needs. On the formation of the new Borough of Manchester police force a standard for constables was set which would hold sway throughout the century. Constables had to be under 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, stout bodily appearance, literate, numerate and in good health. Although these requisites were relaxed slightly for those watchmen previously employed, for new recruits the requisite ‘of good character and efficiency should in no account be dispensed with’.[1]
The working conditions of the officers in the later quarter of the century are detailed and analysed within the sections ‘The Policeman’s Lot’. This research points to a workforce emerging from the previous decades of almost casual labour to that of a professional police force, one where promotion, security and pensions could be earned and operational effectiveness increased.
Police matrons are included after 1894 as these WC paid members are arguably the first women police staff albeit un-sworn and with a very specific remit to care for the female prisoners. This is not as extreme as it might otherwise appear when one considers the limited role of sworn female police officers after the first world war.[2] Female police officers were to face considerable difficulties not least from the newly formed Police Federation.[3] The introduction of police matrons came as a result of direct pressure from the Temperance Movement as the requirement to protect the virtues of female prisoners from male observation and was to result in the segregation of cell corridors at Goulden Street PS and the closing of the ‘female cells’ at Newton Street PS.
Detective Superintendent Jerome Caminada’s evaluation of the force in 1899 is examined His proposals for its rationalisation forms an important part of this study and provides an insight into the Victorian Police commander's outlook. The fact that many of the reforms desired were not operationally viable due to the need to maintain a network of local police stations adds to the central argument.[4]
[1] Manchester Watch Committee Minutes, 25 April 1839.
[2] C. Emsley, The English Police: A Political and Social History,(Harlow: Pearson, 1996)(2nd.ed) pp.127-8 & 157-8.
[3] K. Laybourn, & D. Taylor, Policing in England and Wales, 1918 -39: The Fed, Flying Squad and Forensics, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pp.40-1.
[4] J. Caminada, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Manchester: Heywood 1901)(Vol.2) pp. 500-08.
During the Victorian period the force was led by the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, four divisional superintendents and the Head of Detective Office (detective superintendent), a total of seven officers. 'Rank and file' officers namely constables, sergeants and inspectors made up the entire operation officers of the force. Although significant levels of discipline existed it is the operational capabilities of these men that ultimately determined the strategic decisions of the Watch Committee and senior officers.
There was no doubting the formidable physical duties rank and file officers encountered and the police estate evolved to best deal with their needs. On the formation of the new Borough of Manchester police force a standard for constables was set which would hold sway throughout the century. Constables had to be under 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, stout bodily appearance, literate, numerate and in good health. Although these requisites were relaxed slightly for those watchmen previously employed, for new recruits the requisite ‘of good character and efficiency should in no account be dispensed with’.[1]
The working conditions of the officers in the later quarter of the century are detailed and analysed within the sections ‘The Policeman’s Lot’. This research points to a workforce emerging from the previous decades of almost casual labour to that of a professional police force, one where promotion, security and pensions could be earned and operational effectiveness increased.
Police matrons are included after 1894 as these WC paid members are arguably the first women police staff albeit un-sworn and with a very specific remit to care for the female prisoners. This is not as extreme as it might otherwise appear when one considers the limited role of sworn female police officers after the first world war.[2] Female police officers were to face considerable difficulties not least from the newly formed Police Federation.[3] The introduction of police matrons came as a result of direct pressure from the Temperance Movement as the requirement to protect the virtues of female prisoners from male observation and was to result in the segregation of cell corridors at Goulden Street PS and the closing of the ‘female cells’ at Newton Street PS.
Detective Superintendent Jerome Caminada’s evaluation of the force in 1899 is examined His proposals for its rationalisation forms an important part of this study and provides an insight into the Victorian Police commander's outlook. The fact that many of the reforms desired were not operationally viable due to the need to maintain a network of local police stations adds to the central argument.[4]
[1] Manchester Watch Committee Minutes, 25 April 1839.
[2] C. Emsley, The English Police: A Political and Social History,(Harlow: Pearson, 1996)(2nd.ed) pp.127-8 & 157-8.
[3] K. Laybourn, & D. Taylor, Policing in England and Wales, 1918 -39: The Fed, Flying Squad and Forensics, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pp.40-1.
[4] J. Caminada, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Manchester: Heywood 1901)(Vol.2) pp. 500-08.
