... attendance monitoring and bridge inspection. They were commonly used as lifeguards or even to enforce the Poor Law. But the commonest and main duties of the MPF were simply to deal with drunkenness, begging, vagrancy and prostitution. These duties were vastly different to others that were proposed or initiated within the nineteenth century like the proposition in 1837 by the Select Committee stating that the whole City of London should be placed under the control of the Metropolitan Police Force. Constables learnt their trade 'on the job', which was by no means an easy task. Hours of duty could be as long as 14 a day, seven days a week. In the 1870's/80's a London beat during daytime was seven and a half miles on average, it was 2 miles at night. Police officers have also had varying responsibilities in the manner in which they conducted themselves and appeared to ...

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