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Policing the frontier: Middlesbrough c.1830s to 1860s |
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The unpopularity of the police was a reflection of real shortcomings but the situation was not uniformly bleak. The high turnover rates were beginning to fall in the late 1860s with the emergence of a small core of career policeman that gave a greater degree of stability to the force than it had hitherto enjoyed. Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, in their annual reports on the state of the police in the town, took a positive view of a force comprising, as they saw it, ‘a well-chosen and efficient body of men’.
Modern police headquarters in Middlesbrough
© Courtesy of Middlesbrough Reference Library |
Furthermore, from the mid-1860s onwards crime rates began to fall, which the local police were quick to seize upon as evidence of their success. More importantly, a growing number of ordinary people in the town were becoming aware that there were positive benefits to be gained from having an efficiently policed town. A begrudging acceptance was more common than outright enthusiasm, but the tide of opinion was gradually turning. Following the appointment of Hannan, a completely new force was recruited. The intention was clear but reform could not be achieved immediately and the late 1850s and 1860s were years of difficulty, which had much in common with the earlier years of old policing. However, by the end of the 1860s there was a discernible break with the past as the basis of a disciplined force and an ordered town came into being. The frontier phase had all but passed and the new police had made a significant contribution to this change.
Words: David Taylor
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