Jerome Caminada
Jerome Caminada (1844-1914) served for 31 years with the Manchester police from 1868 until 1899 when he retired as a detective superintendent.[1] Born of Irish and Italian parents his intelligence and fortitude enabled him to rise to the top grade for a detective officer, and he was Manchester’s most famous Victorian police officer.[2] He was instrumental in numerous high profile arrests and earned an excellent reputation.[3] His reports on the effectiveness of the Manchester police were given respect and consideration.
In 1901 Caminada included his views on the Manchester police force in the final chapter of his autobiography, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life.[4] He stated that he had since 1897 submitted 12 reports, both voluntarily and on request of the Manchester Watch Committee, on all sections of the police including two on the police stations and one on the police courts. Following the city’s expansion in 1890, Caminada had felt that significant financial savings in the police budget in the region of £15,000 [@15 per cent] could be made if the establishment was reduced by up to 200 officers and a number of the inner-city police sub-stations were closed along with Goulden Street PS.[5] This station was the only one in addition to those stations included by Chief Constable Peacock.
[See Strategies /Rationalisation 1898 and Police Stations /Map 10].
Caminada proposed the use of the extensive detention or session cells at the two Manchester Police Courts to hold city centre prisoners, to enable the closure of the major police stations of Fairfield St, Newton Street and Goulden Street. This would also reduce prisoner transport and building maintenance costs considerably.
Caminada was convinced that efficiencies could be made in the Manchester police. The publication of this report in his memoirs demonstrates that the efficiency of the Manchester police was of great importance to him at that time and that he wished his views to be known to a wider. One possible motive for this specific publication two years after his retirement was presumably a career in public office. Between 1907 – 1910 he was a councillor for Openshaw, which since 1906 was patrolled from the new Mill Street PS. Openshaw PS was sold to the Poor Law Guardians after Mill Street PS opened.
Caminada’s 1901 publication on the state of the Manchester police followed two earlier Chief Constables’ reports dated from 1892 and 1898 into the efficiency of the force, the latter by Robert Peacock, the new Chief Constable from 1897. It is not recorded in the WC minutes but these two reports may well be the ones referred to by Caminada and then amended, (minus Goulden Street PS and most of the 200 constables) and submitted by the Chief Constable to the WC. This would not have been an unusual practice.
[see Strategies / Rationalisation 1898]
Caminada’s view was influenced by the facts that the Manchester Police in 1901 a force of just over 1000 officers had enjoyed almost continuously falling crime rates from their peak in 1869 and to a considerable extent the ‘domestication’ of the lower classes and a growing acceptance of the police appeared to have been achieved.[6]
In his review of the police, Caminada began with the assumption that:
In 1901 Caminada included his views on the Manchester police force in the final chapter of his autobiography, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life.[4] He stated that he had since 1897 submitted 12 reports, both voluntarily and on request of the Manchester Watch Committee, on all sections of the police including two on the police stations and one on the police courts. Following the city’s expansion in 1890, Caminada had felt that significant financial savings in the police budget in the region of £15,000 [@15 per cent] could be made if the establishment was reduced by up to 200 officers and a number of the inner-city police sub-stations were closed along with Goulden Street PS.[5] This station was the only one in addition to those stations included by Chief Constable Peacock.
[See Strategies /Rationalisation 1898 and Police Stations /Map 10].
Caminada proposed the use of the extensive detention or session cells at the two Manchester Police Courts to hold city centre prisoners, to enable the closure of the major police stations of Fairfield St, Newton Street and Goulden Street. This would also reduce prisoner transport and building maintenance costs considerably.
Caminada was convinced that efficiencies could be made in the Manchester police. The publication of this report in his memoirs demonstrates that the efficiency of the Manchester police was of great importance to him at that time and that he wished his views to be known to a wider. One possible motive for this specific publication two years after his retirement was presumably a career in public office. Between 1907 – 1910 he was a councillor for Openshaw, which since 1906 was patrolled from the new Mill Street PS. Openshaw PS was sold to the Poor Law Guardians after Mill Street PS opened.
Caminada’s 1901 publication on the state of the Manchester police followed two earlier Chief Constables’ reports dated from 1892 and 1898 into the efficiency of the force, the latter by Robert Peacock, the new Chief Constable from 1897. It is not recorded in the WC minutes but these two reports may well be the ones referred to by Caminada and then amended, (minus Goulden Street PS and most of the 200 constables) and submitted by the Chief Constable to the WC. This would not have been an unusual practice.
[see Strategies / Rationalisation 1898]
Caminada’s view was influenced by the facts that the Manchester Police in 1901 a force of just over 1000 officers had enjoyed almost continuously falling crime rates from their peak in 1869 and to a considerable extent the ‘domestication’ of the lower classes and a growing acceptance of the police appeared to have been achieved.[6]
In his review of the police, Caminada began with the assumption that:
The Police Force of every large town is regarded generally by the people as a kind of civil army of quiet occupation, a gentle force pertaining to the community for their defence and for co-operation with all the respectable members of it...confirming the safety and security of all...’[7]
Caminada argued this new civil relationship had reduced and altered the role of the police and that the extensive police estate could now be severely rationalised.
[See Police Estate/ Rationalisation of the Police Estate].
By taking advantage of the new relationship and falling crime, attributed by Caminada to improved education and the general progress of society, he felt most small sub-stations could be dispensed with and the estate centralised to large divisional stations such as Mill Street and Whitworth Street (London Road) police stations.
Although these two stations became operational by 1904 only two of his targeted sub-stations, Brook Street PS Bradford and Openshaw PS (the ones closest to Mill Street PS), were to close. Caminada’s hopes for a reduction in the establishment and estate did not materialise. In 1908, whilst he was a councillor, the Manchester police establishment rose to 1,167 officers along with an increase in population to 606,824 following the further southern expansion of the city boundaries in 1904 into Withington, Chorlton cum Hardy, Moss Side, Didsbury and Burnage.[8]
[See Manchester Growth map, Police Estate Second Expansion.]
It would be well into the next century before the fundamental concept of the local police station providing the constable on foot and local reassurance was to change.[9]
[1] Duncan. Broady, ‘Caminada, Jerome (1844–1914)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2010, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/97984, 18 Jan 2013.
[2] The Caminada Society for retired police officers bears his name. www.gmpsportsclub.com/CAMINADA.aspx. 8.3.2013.
[3] D. Broady, & D. Tetlow, Law and Order in Manchester, (Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, 2005) pp.30-1.
[4] J. Caminada, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Manchester: Heywood 1901)(Vol.2) pp.500-8.
[5] In 1901 the WC reported a police estate evaluation of £153,000 along with rents and repairs of £2,950 and a police pay budget of £92,000 prior any Treasury Exchequer grants.
[6] Davies, ‘Classes and Police in Manchester’ p.40 in reviewing Storch’s view as the police as ‘domestic missionaries’; and Philip Gooderson, ‘Terror on the streets of late Victorian Salford and Manchester: The scuttling menace’. Manchester Region History Review, XI (1997) pp.3-12.
[7] Caminada, 25 Years, p.500.
[8] HMIC Annual Report 1908, Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive / Police Reports.
[9] C. Emsley, The Great British Bobby, (London: Quercus, 2009) pp.224-5.
[See Police Estate/ Rationalisation of the Police Estate].
By taking advantage of the new relationship and falling crime, attributed by Caminada to improved education and the general progress of society, he felt most small sub-stations could be dispensed with and the estate centralised to large divisional stations such as Mill Street and Whitworth Street (London Road) police stations.
Although these two stations became operational by 1904 only two of his targeted sub-stations, Brook Street PS Bradford and Openshaw PS (the ones closest to Mill Street PS), were to close. Caminada’s hopes for a reduction in the establishment and estate did not materialise. In 1908, whilst he was a councillor, the Manchester police establishment rose to 1,167 officers along with an increase in population to 606,824 following the further southern expansion of the city boundaries in 1904 into Withington, Chorlton cum Hardy, Moss Side, Didsbury and Burnage.[8]
[See Manchester Growth map, Police Estate Second Expansion.]
It would be well into the next century before the fundamental concept of the local police station providing the constable on foot and local reassurance was to change.[9]
[1] Duncan. Broady, ‘Caminada, Jerome (1844–1914)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2010, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/97984, 18 Jan 2013.
[2] The Caminada Society for retired police officers bears his name. www.gmpsportsclub.com/CAMINADA.aspx. 8.3.2013.
[3] D. Broady, & D. Tetlow, Law and Order in Manchester, (Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, 2005) pp.30-1.
[4] J. Caminada, Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Manchester: Heywood 1901)(Vol.2) pp.500-8.
[5] In 1901 the WC reported a police estate evaluation of £153,000 along with rents and repairs of £2,950 and a police pay budget of £92,000 prior any Treasury Exchequer grants.
[6] Davies, ‘Classes and Police in Manchester’ p.40 in reviewing Storch’s view as the police as ‘domestic missionaries’; and Philip Gooderson, ‘Terror on the streets of late Victorian Salford and Manchester: The scuttling menace’. Manchester Region History Review, XI (1997) pp.3-12.
[7] Caminada, 25 Years, p.500.
[8] HMIC Annual Report 1908, Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive / Police Reports.
[9] C. Emsley, The Great British Bobby, (London: Quercus, 2009) pp.224-5.
