Sir Charles Warren, in his Report on the Metropolitan Police
for 1887, shows conclusively that the Force is now under- manned. In 1840, nearly forty years ago, when the population was 2,473,000, the authorised strength of the Police was 5,493, of whom 5,288 were available for police purposes, or, speaking roughly, there was one policeman to every five hundred houses. Since then, 500,000 houses have been built, and the population has increased to 5,476,000; but the Police only number 12,460, of whom only 8,773 are available for duty in the streets. They ought, if the proportions of 1849 were correct, to be 11,000. The Chief Commissioner might have added that much more perfect security is demanded; and his plea for an increase of force is unanswerable. We cannot think, however, that he is so successful in his defence of the mode of selecting detectives. He has, it appears, to ask permission from the Home Office to appoint men who have not been policemen, and, as a matter of fact, they have almost all been so employed. That seems a most unwise limitation, more especially as every policeman is a drilled man, with a certain bearing which it is most difficult to disguise. The branch needs persons of special intelligence, and it should be the mark of a good Superintendent to be able to choose competent men, who, again, should be a little better paid.
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