132 Before the Bobbiesgeneral control over the whole of the Establishment of Police, of every
denomination, including the Nightly Watch'. The whole of greater London
should be included in the jurisdiction of the new Office, except the City of
London. (Peel also knew when not to push his luck.) The executive and
judicial functions of the police magistrates should be separated, the magis-
trates retaining the latter while the former be given to the new Office of
Police.^28
The change in attitude from the 1822 Select Committee and the 1828
Select Committee is striking. To understand this, perhaps most important is
to appreciate how the terms of debate had shifted. Professional policing was
well established by the 1820s. The long debate about the virtues of amateur
law enforcement versus the dangers of professionalism had been resolved in
favour of professionalism. The debate was instead about efficiency and how
to make professional policing more effective. By 1828 the answer was cen-
tralization.
Some reformers did not even bother to address constitutional issues but
framed their discussion in terms of efficiency. In Remarks on the Present
Unconnected State of the Police, a police magistrate stated: 'The great defi-
ciency in the police magistrates is their want of connexion [sic], not only with
each other but with the parochial police. This connexion is the only means by
which they can obtain, without an immoderate expense to government, the
aid of a sufficient force properly qualified for the prevention and speedy
detection of crimes.'^29 By the later 1820s this sentiment was more common.
Sir George Stephen published his Practical Suggestions for the Improvement
of the Police in 1829, putting stress on the need for uniformity, centralization,
and hierarchy:
Some of the grand defects of the Police, especially in the Metropolis, have
been the want of uniformity in the jurisdiction of our criminal tribunals,
and of union in their constabulary operations, and a want of systematic
responsibility, in every department, from the highest to the lowest. ...^30The best example of this insistence on the need for centralization is found
in a book by John Wade: A Treatise on the Police and Crimes of the Metropolis,
published in 1829. Wade was already the well-known radical author of The
Extraordinary Black Book, an attack on political corruption and patronage.^31
Wade was not someone who would endorse extensions of governmental
power. Yet his Treatise is an eloquent endorsement of centralized policing.
Initially, Wade argues that parish police needed greater uniformity for prag-
matic reasons, dismissing constitutional issues:
If any scheme of watching and patrolling can be devised, or is found, by
experience, most beneficial in one parish, it is sheer folly not to extend it to
every other. The property to be secured and the outrages to be prevented