As we have seen in chapter 5, the history of the English police is fraught with
colorful and exciting periods. There have always been conflicts between the
advocates of a national centralized police force and those who, fearing it,
supported local control of the police. Bitter opposition has been aroused among
the citizens whenever there has been an attempt to strengthen the efficiency and
powers of the police.

In this chapter we shall examine the current structure and organization of the
English police, police recruitment and training, and the issue of women and
minorities in policing. We shall then turn our attention to an investigation of
police powers and procedures, the image of the police in English society, the
police response to the increasing violence in England, and new directions and
challenges to the traditional structure of the police.

At the time of World War II, there were 183 police forces in England and
Wales. In the mid-1960s, after the 1962 Willink Commission¹ recommended
a reduction, and economic conditions necessitated it, the number offorces
was reduced to forty-three in England and Wales and eight in Scotland.
Among the forty-three English forces are the two police forces for the
London area: the metropolitan police and the City of London police. In the
1960s and 1970s there were several changes in the boundaries of the English
police forces primarily due to local wrangling between political figures in
neighboring areas.

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