Police – Burgh Police Forces
The earliest form of policing in Scotland was the duty of watch and ward, carried out by burgesses in burghs from at least the 12th century. The work was mostly unpaid, part-time and temporary, with individuals serving as part of their civic duties.[1] By 1592 the Parliament attempted to extend these responsibilities to all inhabitants of burghs.[2] Several towns, notably Edinburgh, augmented this with an armed town guard in periods of crisis.
In the second half of the 18th century several burghs attempted to improve policing by obtaining local acts of parliament to empower forms of local taxation to pay for watching and other functions. In 1800, Glasgow was the first burgh to establish a police force on modern lines, with salaried constables accountable to the magistrates.[3] Several other burghs obtained local acts to establish police forces soon after 1800, and from 1833 a series of general police acts permitted any existing royal burgh to establish a police system with additional powers covering cleansing and other functions without the need for a local act of parliament.[4] The General Police (Scotland) Act, 1850 extended the power to become a police burgh to places with a population over 1200.[5] The General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act, 1862 reduced the minimum population for the creation of a police burgh to 700.[6]
These burgh police forces were appointed and supervised by elected police commissioners which in some burghs were a separate local authority from the burgh council. In 1892 the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act ended the overlap and sometimes conflict that had existed between burgh councils and police commissioners in burghs by restricting powers to either one or the other. Only those burghs with 7000 or more inhabitants were allowed to keep their police forces, and new police forces were restricted to burghs with a population of over 20,000.[7] Police commissioners were abolished by the Town Councils (Scotland) Act, 1900 which replaced burgh councils, police commissioners and local authorities under the Public Health Acts with a single town council in each case.[8]
In 1929 the right to operate a police force was restricted to large burghs (with a population over 20,000) which already had an existing police force and new police forces only permitted in burghs with a population over 50,000: all other burghs were required to transfer any existing burgh police force and its assets to the county constabulary.[9] In 1947 all local authorities operating a police force were required to have a police committee.[10] In 1967 only twenty burghs continued to operate a police force.[11]
Burgh police forces ceased to exist as part of local government reorganisation in 1975, when town councils of burghs were abolished, police forces were reorganised on a regional basis, (subject to any amalgamations), and the regional and islands councils became the police authority for the police force in their area.[12]
Police Scotland is responsible for the surviving historical records of its predecessor police forces and has agreements with a number of local authority archives to hold many of these records which are no longer required for operational purposes (see police records locations for details).
Compilers: SCAN contributors (2000). Editors: Pam McNicol (Stirling Council Archives, 2021), Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Police – County Constabularies
Police amalgamations and reorganisations
Police Chief Constable annual reports
Police Chief Constable letter books
Police correspondence files, case files & administrative files
Police instruction books & manuals
Police licensing and similar records
Police staff records or personnel records
Bibliography
Barrie, David G., Police in the Age of Improvement: police development and the civic tradition in Scotland 1775-1865 (Willan, 2008)
Dinsmor, Alastair, and Robert H. J. Urquhart, ‘The Origins of Modern Policing in Scotland’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 36-44
Harrison, John G., ‘Policing the Stirling Area, 1660-1706’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 16-24
McGowan, John, ‘The Emergence of Modern Civil Police in Scotland: a case study of the police and systems of police in Edinburghshire 1800-1833’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, The Open University, 1997).
Stallion, Martin and David S. Wall, The British Police: Forces and Chief Officers 1829-2012 (Police History Society, 2011)
Stewart, Marion M., ‘A Policeman’s Lot: Police Records in Dumfries and Galloway, 1850-1950’ Scottish Archives, 7 (2001), pp. 25-35
References
[1] David G. Barrie, Police in the Age of Improvement: police development and the civic tradition in Scotland 1775-1865 (Willan, 2008), pp.24-25.
[2] Regarding the taxation of burghs. The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. by K.M. Brown and others (University of St Andrews, 2007-2021), 1592/4/97 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1592/4/97> [accessed 30 Nov 2021]
[3] Glasgow City Extension and Improvement Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III c.lxxxviii).
[4] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.46).
[5] Police (Scotland) Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c.33).
[6] General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 101).
[7] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 55).
[8] Town Councils (Scotland) Act, 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 49).
[9] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25) s.3.
[10] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c.43) s.112.
[11] Police (Scotland) Act 1967 (c.77).
[12] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.146.