Policing

Modern

Policing of cities in Europe developed in Glasgow, Dublin and London as a response to unrest and crises. From the mid-1700s, poor harvests and food rioting precipitated a series of policing reforms in the Irish Parliament. In the 1800s, further unrest and changes in popular notions of social obligations in growing urban populations led to a series of new police reforms in Great Britain. These spread to its former and current dominions in North America, Australia and elsewhere, where urban police forces adopted similar founding principles, structures, regulations and shared personnel.