104 Before the Bobbies
The inhabitants of the Liberty of the Rolls moved from supporting law
enforcement as a traditional community and personal obligation to endor-
sing an improved, professional watch. During this period of just over a
month, these men progressed through almost every possible response to
the contemporary sense of alarm and insecurity. Their experience illustrates
in microcosm what was at issue in police reform in London by the early
nineteenth century. The debate over professional versus amateur policing
was being resolved in favour of professionalism, much as Mr' Roworth
represented. Rising crime rates and mass political demonstrations and riots
after 1815 also increased pressure for improved policing. The unreliability
and politically partisan nature of volunteer efforts, however, convinced many
that improved policing could only be accomplished with paid officers.
But post-war pressures for retrenchment were also strong and discouraged
innovations that increased taxes. Whigs and Radicals continued to oppose
any increase in patronage thus discouraging any expansion of central govern-
ment payrolls. Professional policing did not mean, however, centralized
policing. What convinced some that volunteers were not enough confirmed
for others that policing must remain in local hands, to safeguard the rights of
freeborn Englishmen. Under the auspices of its police magistrates, the
central government expanded its forces involved in everyday policing of
London's streets and highways. Urged on by reformers, the House of Com-
mons appointed four different select committees to investigate the night
watch or the 'Police of the Metropolis' between 1815 and 1822. The work
of these committees illustrates the continuing importance of local interests,
the suspicion of centralized policing and fears of property crime as a primary
motive for police reform. They also indicate the extent to which 'police' was
increasingly seen as a function of the central government, especially in
London's case. When the post-war upheavals subsided and the economy
improved in the early 1820s, parishes continued to improve their policing,
much as they had in the 1780s. Emphasis continued to be on improving the
personnel, discipline, and preventative capability of the watch. Sharing of
ideas for reform between local and central authorities increased as parishes,
police magistrates, and the Home Office all circulated suggestions for and
experimented with reform.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 was a welcome event after almost
twenty-three years of fighting. Yet peace was a mixed blessing for London.
'The peace brought back to England large numbers of disreputable men who
had spent several years being further brutalized by service in the armed
forces, without any provision being made for their re-entry into the work
force.'^5 Contemporaries had come to expect the connection between peace