A Brief History of Scotland Yard

The name (London Police Office) means a foggy London street patrolled by a trench-coated detective puffing smoke from his pipe. But the history of the London Police Department is easily confused, full of misuse of words and controversy. It is not the name of the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London, either in Scotland or in a yard, and, by association, it has become synonymous with the police. Nor does the Yard serve the city, but the greater London area. With all this confusion in mind, it's time to investigate the story of Scotland Yard and some of its most infamous cases, from Jack the Ripper to the 2005 London bombings,

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Making the Police Force

The London Police Force was created in 1829 by a parliamentary bill introduced by Sir Robert Peel, Britain's Minister of the Interior (similar to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior). The new force was created by a bill introduced in Parliament in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, the British Secretary of the Interior (similar to the American Secretary of the Interior), and the police were nicknamed "Bobby". The new police replaced the old guard system. By 1839, they had replaced the Bow Street Patrol, which enforced the decisions of magistrates, and the River Police, which prevented crime along the Thames.

The responsibility for organizing the new police force was given to Colonel Charles Rowan and Richard Mayne, who occupied a private house at the back, at 4 Whitehall Square, which contained a courtyard: Great Scotland Yard. The courtyard takes its name from its site, a medieval palace where the Scottish royal family stayed when visiting London.

The staff of Scotland Yard were responsible for the protection of important individuals, community patrols, public **** affairs, recruitment and personnel management. when the first plainclothes policemen were sent to the Yard in 1842, the public found it hard to forgive these "spies" on the streets. But the force's role in several important cases, and the charisma of many of the detectives, helped it win the trust of the people.

One such man, Charles Frederick Field, joined the force when it was founded in 1829. He became good friends with Charles Dickens, who would occasionally *** with the police on their night patrols. Dickens wrote a short essay about Field, On Duty with Inspector Field, and used him as a role model for the omniscient and charismatic Inspector Barker in his novel Bleak House. Field retired as head of the detective service in 1852.

In 1877,

, four of the five heads of the detective service were put on trial for conspiring with criminals in a gambling scheme. In an effort to repair the unit's reputation, Howard Vincent submitted a reorganization plan to the unit. Soon after, Vincent was appointed Director of Criminal Investigations, and he reorganized the Metropolitan Police Service and strengthened its central department. Thus, a highly respected department of plainclothes detectives, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, was born.

Blood on the Tracks

At the turn of the century, Scotland Yard was the scene of many significant events. Britain's "Bloody Sunday" occurred on November 13, 1887, when 2,000 police officers disrupted a meeting organized by the Social Democratic Union in Trafalgar Square, resulting in more than 100 casualties. A few years later the force moved to a new building on the Victoria Embankment. This place was known as New Scotland Yard.

Also during this time, one of Scotland Yard's most durable detectives, Frederick Porter Wensley (aka "Weasel"), began his 40-year career. Wensley joined the force in 1888, and his career is notable for many landmark cases, including the murder of 32-year-old Frenchwoman Emilienne Gerard, also known as the "Blodie Belgium" case. 1917. On the morning of November 2, street sweepers found Gerard's torso and a note that read "Blodie Belgium". Wensley questioned Gerard's lover, Louis Worthing, and asked him to write the note "Bloody Belgium". Worthing made the same spelling mistake and sealed his crime.

Early in Wensley's career, his case for the infamous Jack the Ripper took place in London's East End. Jack R Epper claimed to be the alias of a serial killer who committed five murders between 1888 and 1891. Officers from the Metropolitan Police were sent to arrest the suspect, who was responsible for 11 attacks against *** in the impoverished Whitechapel area. Police established a pattern of the killer being willing to pay for *** deals, luring women away and slitting their throats, but the culprit was hard to find.

Without modern forensic techniques, Scotland Yard officers, known as Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline, relied on anthropometric measurements or identifying criminals by certain facial features, such as the thickness of eyebrows or the shape of the jaw. More than 160 people have been charged with the Whitechapel murders, from Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, to the painter William Richard Hickett. The force received many letters from people claiming to be murderers; two in particular provided detailed facts and were signed "Jack the Ripper". However, in 1892, with no further clues or murders, the Jack the Ripper case was officially closed.

The Yard today

Since its inception, Scotland Yard has had a place in popular culture. The officers often appear in the context of mystery stories, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. In today's television and magazines, Scotland Yard's "Bobby" can be seen standing stoically behind the royal family and other dignitaries assigned to protect them.

In 1967, the force moved again to its current location, a modern 20-story building near the Houses of Parliament. The CID is known for its investigative methods, primarily its fingerprinting technology, which was borrowed by the FBI. Today, Scotland Yard has about 30,000 officers patrolling 620 square miles of land occupied by 7.2 million citizens.

Right now, Scotland Yard's reputation hangs in the balance, just as it did 130 years ago, when, on July 22, 2005, during an investigation into the 2005 London bombings, police mistook Brazilian electrician Jean? Charles? de Menezes was a suicide bomber and fatally shot him. Menezes, who lived in an apartment under police surveillance and was wearing bulky clothes that day, resembled an Ethiopian suspect later arrested in connection with the bombing, according to police. Earlier this month, members of the Metropolitan Police Service, the watchdog for the Met, condemned Commissioner Ian Blair for "not knowing where the truth lies." The messenger has repeatedly stated that he will not resign over the murder.

CORRECTION ATTACHED OCTOBER 2, 2007: Originally this article was addressed to the UK Home Secretary and the US Secretary of Defense. This should have been the Home Secretary