As Queen Victoria’s reign commenced the old watchmen were still patrolling the streets and Bow Street Runners were still investigating crime in London; the counties and boroughs were being policed by their own unpaid parish constables. This book details the demise of the old policing systems and the development of Sir Robert Peel’s ‘New Police’, or ‘Peelers’ as they were commonly called. It gives a vivid account of what it was like to be one of these revolutionary new officers and why a policeman’s lot was not always a happy one. But above all it explains why Britain’s police service has become the envy of all other police forces throughout the world.