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Detective Policing And The State In Nineteenth-Century England: The Detective Department Of The London Metropolitan Police, 1842-1878, Rachael Griffin
Detective Policing And The State In Nineteenth-Century England: The Detective Department Of The London Metropolitan Police, 1842-1878, Rachael Griffin
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This thesis evaluates the development of surveillance-based undercover policing in Victorian England through an examination of the first centralized police detective force in the country, the Detective Department of the London Metropolitan Police (1842-1878). It argues that the Detective Department overcame British fears that detective police were incompatible with individual liberty and parliamentary democracy, making the English detective a familiar and reliable public servant. The Detective Department, which worked from Scotland Yard, was formed in 1842 in response to criticism that the Metropolitan Police was unable to successfully investigate homicide. This was a surprising development in a country where property …