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US, Black slang for police officers widely used on the East and West Coasts in the early 1970s. Roussin French. [59] In the 18th century undercover detectives in high society were dressed in a reddish (roussâtre) long jacket. Rozzers UK, slang for police officers, first recorded in the late 1800s. [60]
The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 (10 Geo. 4.c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced by Sir Robert Peel, which established the Metropolitan Police.
London now had the world's first modern police force. The 3000 policemen were called "bobbies" (after Peel's first name). They were well-organized, centrally directed, and wore standard blue uniforms. Legally they had the historic status of constable, with authority to make arrests of suspicious persons and book offenders before a magistrate court.
Personal radio systems were first issued to police officers and installed in police cars in the 1960s (resulting in the demise of the "police box" telephones made famous by Doctor Who). In 2004, British police forces began change radios from analogue , to digital TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) system for communications, called Airwave .
It is well-known that police officers in the UK are called "bobbies", but "bobby on the beat" refers specifically to a policeman on patrol. A policeman walking the streets is a "bobby on the beat"; a policeman behind a desk is just a "bobby"; the Chief Constable of a police force is certainly not referred to as a "bobby on the beat".
The policy under which police officers in England and Wales use firearms has resulted in controversy. Notorious examples include the Stephen Waldorf shooting in 1983, the deliberate fatal shootings of James Ashley in 1998, Harry Stanley in 1999, and Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, and the accidental non-fatal shooting of Abdul Kahar in 2006.
Some early-19th-century references to "railway police" or "policemen" do not concern constables but instead describe the men responsible for the signalling and control of the movement of trains (it is still common colloquial practice within railway staff for their modern equivalents in signal boxes and signalling centres to be called "Bobbies ...
The Police Act 1964 created 49 larger forces in England and Wales, some covering two or more counties or large urban areas. Legal jurisdiction of territorial police officers in England and Wales is expanded to cover England, Wales, and their territorial waters. Jurisdiction was more geographically limited prior to this point. 1966