British Bobbies Were Not Always Admired
London finally got a professional police force in the nineteenth century, but it was met with fierce resistance from many. Nowadays, London cops – the officers of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – are generally respected and affectionately known as “Bobbies”. That was not always the case. For decades after they were first formed in 1829, the very legitimacy of police and the need for their services was questioned by many Victorians. Naysayers were not limited to the criminal classes. As a result, MPS officers had a fraught relationship with the public they were sworn to serve. Indeed, throughout much of the nineteenth century, the Bobbies were held in low esteem by much of the public.
Early London cops were not only routinely derided and disrespected but were also frequently actively trolled, baited, and attacked for kicks and giggles. Many people seriously disliked the cops, and there was an active anti-police ideology in the Victorian Era, communicated through a radical press that depicted the new policy as an unconstitutional infringement upon English liberties. The Bobbies were often referred to as “blue locusts” and “blue idlers”. It reflected a perception that police were parasites who were excused by their position from honest work, and who unfairly got to live off the taxes of honest men.