While I think that Peel doesn’t get enough credit for his reforms of the legal system, laws and procedures, I’ve found after 3 college degrees in Criminal Justice and 35 years military police and civilian law enforcement service that the impact of the “Metropolitan Police-model” has been overstated and that the “Royal Irish Constabulary-model” of policing has been grossly understated in terms of its impact outside of England.
that's really interesting. Similarities in the sort of people employed, but a harder edged, armed/less interest in the 'police are the public' rhetoric?
No, more along the lines of “ivory tower academia.” I’ve worked investigations in 6 different US states, did training in another 4, and did field research in Australia (Sydney, Carins, Ayer’s Rock) and Canada (Vancouver, Victoria), plus studied with other Detectives with the City of London Police and while there was what I’d call the Peel influence, pretty much most academics don’t know or want to discuss the influence the RIC had in Australia, Canada, India, etc… the RCMP has always looked more like a cavalry regiment than “plod on the beat” and I’m talking about the service members not the horses.
While I’m on my soap box I need to again give Peel credit for the reforms of the legal system he pushed for. If you look at the failures in most Security Sector Reforms over the past couple of decades it’s been the myopic focus on the police and failing to reform the legal system that the police and prosecutors work in.
Fascinating bit of history. The size of the Home Office particularly caught my eye. Government staffs continued being tiny for much longer, in the US at least. E.g., FDR had six assistants (and this was considered extravagant); in Congress, the War and Navy committees had one single permanent staffer apiece during WWII. I would guess things were similar in the UK?
I wonder if there's any real need for such vast bureaucracies today. We could certainly use energetic reformers like Peele today, and perhaps organizational sclerosis prevents us from getting men like him.
While I think that Peel doesn’t get enough credit for his reforms of the legal system, laws and procedures, I’ve found after 3 college degrees in Criminal Justice and 35 years military police and civilian law enforcement service that the impact of the “Metropolitan Police-model” has been overstated and that the “Royal Irish Constabulary-model” of policing has been grossly understated in terms of its impact outside of England.
that's really interesting. Similarities in the sort of people employed, but a harder edged, armed/less interest in the 'police are the public' rhetoric?
No, more along the lines of “ivory tower academia.” I’ve worked investigations in 6 different US states, did training in another 4, and did field research in Australia (Sydney, Carins, Ayer’s Rock) and Canada (Vancouver, Victoria), plus studied with other Detectives with the City of London Police and while there was what I’d call the Peel influence, pretty much most academics don’t know or want to discuss the influence the RIC had in Australia, Canada, India, etc… the RCMP has always looked more like a cavalry regiment than “plod on the beat” and I’m talking about the service members not the horses.
While I’m on my soap box I need to again give Peel credit for the reforms of the legal system he pushed for. If you look at the failures in most Security Sector Reforms over the past couple of decades it’s been the myopic focus on the police and failing to reform the legal system that the police and prosecutors work in.
Fascinating bit of history. The size of the Home Office particularly caught my eye. Government staffs continued being tiny for much longer, in the US at least. E.g., FDR had six assistants (and this was considered extravagant); in Congress, the War and Navy committees had one single permanent staffer apiece during WWII. I would guess things were similar in the UK?
I wonder if there's any real need for such vast bureaucracies today. We could certainly use energetic reformers like Peele today, and perhaps organizational sclerosis prevents us from getting men like him.