The War ~ars, 1793-1815 99watch trustees to their local police magistrates. Colquhoun moved
Bentham's vision of constant vigilance and centralized inspection from the
penitentiary to the streets so the issues of function and control in policing
could not be separated. Colquhoun's preventive police force was, by defini-
tion, a centralized police force.^91 This view explains why the night watch, as
traditionally structured, was not considered part of 'the police'. Although its
function was undoubtedly the prevention of crinle, the fact that it was locally
controlled by many different authorities was a potentially fundamental flaw.
If Parliament was unwilling to eliminate all local control of policing in
London, reformers could either work to centralize and standardize the
night watch or expand the preventive function of forces already under central
control, that is, those attached to the police offices.
The bill that came out of the 1812 Select Committee on the Night Watch
aimed at the former. The Committee's function was to investigate 'those
leading principles of preventive Superintendence and Controul, and to that
system of provident Vigilance, which, by watching assiduously over the
interests of the Community, may maintain without interruption, its good
Order and Security'. The Committee offered the City of London police as
'an example of that dependence of parts on each other, without which no
well constructed and efficient system of Police can ever be expected'.^92 The
1812 bill drew on the example of the 1774 Westminster Night Watch Act,
noting that it provided a uniformity of practice and structure which had been
found to be 'beneficial'. This bill proposed that the provisions of the 1774
Act be extended to all metropolitan parishes, with the exclusion of the City
of London.^93 Someone learned a key lesson from 1785 - exempting the City
deflected a powerful potential opponent. Each local watch authority would
be responsible for implementing the bill and for rating its own householders
for the watch. The bill raised the ceiling on watch rates and mandated that
each parish employ one watchman for every 60 houses and one patrol for
every 12 watchmen in two rotation shifts. Watchmen and patrols were author-
ized and required to act beyond the boundaries of their local jurisdiction.^94
Provisions of the bill that increased centralization included appointment of
a new officer, the Assistant High Constable, who would superintend the
petty constables and the watchmen. He was to be appointed by and answer
to the police magistrates, not parish watch authorities although his £S-a-
month salary was funded from local watch rates. Police magistrates would
have the authority to remove watchmen they felt were unfit for duty. The
authority of parochial authorities over the watch would thus be largely
subordinated to that of the police magistrates.^95 To facilitate centralized
communication, parishes would be grouped into eight districts, each over-
seen by a Police Office and patrolled by a district Assistant High Constable.
District and parochial constables would be required to make nightly reports
forwarded daily to the nearest police office. Each week the district Assistant