122 Before the Bobbieshave, each of them ... only an equal and concurrent jurisdiction: they are
'jointly and severally' authorized to exercise the several powers of arrest-
ing, detaining, and conveying before a magistrate all offenders ... and
neither Watchman nor Constable is required to obtain, the one from the
other any sanction of the measures he shall pursue in furtherance of the
objects of the [local] Act.Second, constables and watchmen were both subject to the disciplinary
authority of the commissioners, unless such authority had been nullified
by a subsequent act, which had not happened. The report stated emphatic-
ally: 'if the .Constable be either absent, or incapacitated, or disobedient
to those regulations which the Commissioners have the power to make
for his "government and direction", the Commissioners' own officers, with
the ancient law and the local acts on their side, need not scruple to take all
proper authority into their own hands.' Finally, if an application was made
to the lord of the manor or a local justice, such application 'ought to have
the effect of removing the incompetent or unfit constable'. The paving
commissioners, on the basis of this opinion, went ahead and instructed
their superintendents and watchhouse keepers that they had the power
to arrest, detain, and convey anyone they apprehended before a magistrate,
with or without the assistance of a constable. They also ordered that the
fines payable because of non-attendance on the part of a constable be
vigorously enforced.^101
This reveals some important contemporary trends in police administra-
tion. By equating constables and watchmen, the special status of the con-
stable as an officer of a court would be changed to that of commission
employee, a shift in language reflecting the influence of economical reform
and Bentharnism.^102 'Officers' were paid by the fees received, a situation
criticized for causing inefficiency and corruption. Employees, however, could
be paid fixed and known salaries and hired and fired with ease.^103 Thus
watch personnel were increasingly seen as employees and professionals. By
1828, as this legal opinion indicates, constables could be subordinate to the
local police authority and were not necessarily officers accountable only to
magistrates. This could potentially mean more jurisdictional fights between
parishes and magistrates like those in Clerkenwell or St Marylebone.
Secondly, according to this legal opinion, the commissioners had an
authority over constables that was on a par with the magistrates, if not
superior to it in their jurisdiction. This would have reduced the role of
magistrates in Clerkenwell to a judicial one. Justices of the peace were
traditionally both administrative and judicial officers - they enforced the
law and sat in judgement on those accused of breaking it. In the 1820s,
reformers called for a distinct separation of judicial and law enforcement
powers. Sir George Stephen wrote in 1829: