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As Queen Victoria's reign commenced the old watchmen were still patrolling the streets and Bow Street Runners were still investigating crime in London; the counties and boroughs were being policed by their own unpaid parish constables. This book details the demise of the old policing systems and the development of Sir Robert Peel's `New Police', or `Peelers' as they were commonly called. It gives a vivid account of what it was like to be one of these revolutionary new officers and why a policeman's lot was not always a happy one. But above all it explains why Britain's police service has become the envy of all other police forces throughout the world.

Simon Dell MBE was a long-serving police officer in the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and is a member of the Police History Society. He has written four other books on the history of policing, including Policing the Peninsula and The Beat on Western Dartmoor.