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The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1749 by magistrate Henry Fielding, who was also well known as an author.
The Bow Street Runners were the first professional police force, organised in London by magistrate and author Henry Fielding in 1749. The group would end up successfully solving and preventing crimes until 1839 when the force was disbanded in favour of the Metropolitan Police, leaving behind a legacy for modern-day policing.
10 de ene. de 2024 · The Bow Street Runners were established by Henry Fielding and his half-brother John Fielding in 1749. At first there were only six Bow Street Runners but the force was extended to seven...
16 de feb. de 2012 · This is the first intensive study of the Bow Street runners, a group of men established by Henry Fielding, in the middle of the eighteenth century with the financial support of the government to confront violent offenders on the streets and highways around London.
Over the next 266 years some of the country’s most significant developments in criminal justice took place here, from the inception of the Bow Street Runners (London’s first official law enforcement service) to modern extradition cases such as those brought against Chilean general and politician Jose Ramon Pinochet.
The Bow Street force had been formed initially when Henry Fielding persuaded half a dozen men to join together to attack the gangs of robbers who were giving cause for anxiety in London in the years following the peace of 1748.
Seven police offices were established in London in 1792 on the Bow Street pattern, though for defined districts; the unlimited jurisdiction of Bow Street enabled its six ‘runners’ to range widely and gain prestige for their vigilance and detective skills.
