Bow Street Runners

Bow Street Runners
Named afterBow Street Magistrates' Court
PredecessorThief-takers
SuccessorMetropolitan Police
Formation1749
FounderHenry Fielding, John Fielding
Founded atBow Street Magistrates' Court, Bow Street, Covent Garden, Westminster, London, England, Kingdom of Great Britain
Dissolved1839
HeadquartersBow Street Magistrates' Court, Bow Street, Covent Garden, Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom
MethodsArrest, apprehension, conviction
Magistrate
Henry Fielding
Magistrate
Sir John Fielding
Parent organization
British Crown Court

The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1749 by magistrate Henry Fielding, who was also well known as an author.[1] His assistant, brother, and successor as magistrate, John Fielding, moulded the constables into a professional and effective force. Bow Street Runners was the public's nickname for the officers although the officers did not use the term themselves and considered it derogatory.[2] The group was disbanded in 1839 and its personnel merged with the Metropolitan Police, which had been formed ten years earlier but the London metropolitan detective bureau trace their origins back from there.

  1. ^ Newman 1997, p. 69.
  2. ^ Cox 2010.