City of Glasgow Police

The City of Glasgow Police or Glasgow City Police was the police of the City of Glasgow, Scotland. In the 17th century, Scottish cities used to hire watchmen to guard the streets at night, augmenting a force of unpaid citizen constables. On 30 June 1800 the authorities of Glasgow successfully petitioned the British Government to pass the Glasgow Police Act establishing the City of Glasgow Police. It served Glasgow from 1800 to 1975, when it was amalgamated into Strathclyde Police. It is sometimes described as the first modern-style municipal police force, although due to the original Glasgow Police's small size and varied duties in 1779, they also fought fires, called the hours, and swept the streets, similar to the older city watchmen. This title was previously claimed by the London Metropolitan Police. However, following formal enforcement action by the Advertising Standards Authority, the Metropolitan Police gave a written undertaking never to repeat this claim again. Even "The Spectator" magazine gets this wrong - an article by Dot Wordsworth claims that the "Marine Police force" in London was in 1798 the first force in Britain called police to keep law and order, and the magazine has for many years failed to correct this error. In 1779, Bailies (magistrates) of the City of Glasgow appointed James Buchanan as Inspector and established a Police force of eight police officers. This force failed through lack of finance in 1781. In 1788 six Bailies proposed to establish a Police force and obtain an Act of Parliament to empower them to levy a rate from householders to finance the force. The Bailies displayed vision and innovation in setting out their proposals insisting that the force would be run by a Watch Committee of elected citizens, known as Commissioners. The force would wear uniforms with numbered badges with 'Police' inscribed on them and each member would lodge £50 to guarantee their good conduct. The force of eight would provide twenty-four-hour patrols (supplementing the Police Watchmen who were on static points throughout the night) to prevent crime and detect offenders.