Shadow of great britain

"The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Chief Constable of the London Metropolitan Police, Charles Rowan, hereby reads out the Executive Order No. 1 of the Ministry of the Interior of 1832, "Reorganizing the division of functions within the Metropolitan Police and establishing a national police force". "Committee's Consultative Recommendations"

In the conference hall of Scotland Yard, Director Rowan recited the latest resolution from the Ministry of Home Affairs at length.

While he was reading, the senior police officers in the audience were also whispering.

Superintendent Marcelin, who was sitting by the window, raised his elbow and asked Arthur, who was taking off his coat and wearing only a white shirt next to him: "Boy, is there any latest news?"

Arthur covered his eyes with one hand to block the sun, and replied in a low voice: "New news? It's just reform, what else can be new?"

The muscular Superintendent Vaughn glanced at the two of them and muttered: "I have some new news here, but it came from the Navy Department."

"What does the Admiralty have to do with us?" Superintendent Marcelin took a sip of tea: "If the news from the Department of War and Colonial Affairs might be useful, after all, we are all from the Army, and the police system is closely related to the Army. It has much more to do with the Royal Navy.”

Superintendent Vaughan snorted, lowered his body and whispered: "Brother, you don't know something about this, right? Reform is a whole, and we at Scotland Yard can at best be implicated in moving together."

Although Marcelin was not interested in Vaughn's news, Arthur was different. After all, he also had friends in the Royal Navy.

Arthur turned his face and asked, "What happened at the Admiralty?"

Anyway, I was idle, Director Rowan's voice when reading the manuscript was not very pleasant, and Superintendent Vaughn didn't mind chatting with Arthur more.

"I heard that the Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham, seemed to be engaging in meritocracy in the Admiralty. He said he was preparing to break down party boundaries and appoint civil servants in the department according to their abilities."

Superintendent Marcelin, who had been in a lack of interest just now, opened his eyes wide when he heard this and asked: "Is he crazy? The Whig party has been suppressed for so many years and finally returned to power. Graham is so Well, can those Whigs who are eagerly waiting for their share of the spoils agree?"

Superintendent Vaughan shrugged his shoulders and said: "Of course they disagree, but now Sir Graham is the one sitting in the top position of the Admiralty. If he says he wants to do it, then he must do it. A few days ago , he has formally appointed two Admiralty Secretaries with Tory backgrounds."

Arthur was also surprised when he heard this: "Although opponents cannot influence the personal opinions of the Admiralty, it is impossible that there is no voice in protest, right?"

"Who said they didn't protest?"

Superintendent Vaughan covered his mouth and snickered: "I heard from my brother-in-law that the Whig Party held a collective meeting at the Reform Club last night, and the counter-reformation parties at the meeting were all fired up against Sir Graham. He planned to hand over the hard-won victory of the Whig Party, and also slandered Graham, saying that he was an undercover agent sent by the Tories. But the most gratifying thing was the protest from the Treasury Department."

Superintendent Marcelin asked: "Does the reform of the Admiralty have anything to do with the Treasury?"

Vaughan clapped his hands and reminded: "Have you forgotten? In the past, the personnel secretary of the Ministry of Finance was responsible for the appointment of civil servants. Now Sir Graham directly bypasses them and appoints the secretary himself. It will definitely not work if they don't protest."

Arthur took a sip of tea: "We are not afraid of protests from the Ministry of Finance, but we are afraid that they will make a fuss about the annual budget. With Sir Graham's actions, I am afraid that the Ministry of Navy's allowances and subsidies next year will be severely manipulated by the Ministry of Finance."

"That's not necessarily true."

"How to say?"

Superintendent Vaughan replied: "Because according to my observation, Sir Graham may have done this under the private instruction of the Prime Minister, Earl Gray."

"The Prime Minister's order?"

Superintendent Marcelin took a closer look and suddenly smelled something: "Could this... Earl Gray... be trying to buy off the Tory party's vacillating stance on parliamentary reform through his civil service position in the Admiralty? Member of Parliament?"

"I didn't say that!" Superintendent Vaughan joked: "Marcelin, how dare you guess the Prime Minister's mysterious intentions so easily?"

"hiss……"

Marcelin took a breath and thought: "When you said this, I suddenly realized... the recent reforms seem to be a bit unreasonable. Even if the establishment of local health committees in various places is a last resort, there are other On the other hand, is it necessary to be in such a hurry?"

"Yes! Is it necessary to be in such a hurry?"

Superintendent Vaughn, who looked tall and thick, picked up the tea cup and took a sip, and sprayed out a long burst of hot white water vapor: "But having said that, the Tory Party has been in power for more than thirty years, and the Whig Party wants to make a complete comeback in all fields. , we really need to be drastic and enterprising in reform. Wherever the Tories have an advantage, they will make changes."

The two superintendents were chatting here, but Arthur remained silent.

Although on the surface they seemed to be talking about the reform of the Admiralty, in fact they were all talking about changes within Scotland Yard.

The Admiralty's civil service reforms and the Army's disarmament and downsizing may seem unrelated, but in fact they are a set of combined punches aimed at the Tories.

As Scotland Yard was built by Sir Peel, and all the key police officers came from the department of retired army officers in the Tory base camp, naturally they could not avoid the fatal blow of the Whigs.

However, due to the large scale and numerous functions of Scotland Yard, and the current security of the London metropolitan area does require the management of senior police officers, the Whigs can only use reforms to slowly change the blood of Scotland Yard.

Even during the blood exchange process, there were only a handful of people for them to choose from.

First of all, the newly promoted senior police officers must have a sufficiently impressive report card and social reputation, so that the reputation of reforming bad policies can be justified.

Secondly, there must be no problem with the composition of this person. To be more precise, this person cannot be from the Army, that is, he cannot be someone from the Tory military circles such as the Duke of Wellington.

By this alone, nearly 90% of Scotland Yard's senior police officers have been screened out.

Finally, this man might as well be considered one of the Whigs themselves. Although Scotland Yard police officers are required not to reveal personal political leanings, they must strictly maintain political neutrality. However, this did not prevent him from having a relatively Whig educational background.

And today, at the New Year's Work Meeting of the Metropolitan Police where senior police officers from Scotland Yard gather, looking around in such a large circle and picking and choosing, there seems to be only one person who meets this condition.

"Superintendent Hastings."

"arrive."

Arthur stood up and looked at Director Rowan.

Luo Wan put down the three-page document in his hand, rubbed his head, and took a long breath and said: "Although I know that the task you are shouldering now is very heavy, but whether it is your personal character or work, Whether it is your ability or your knowledge, you are the best person to take the lead in preparing for the establishment of the London Police School. Are you willing to shoulder this responsibility?"

Arthur didn't take Director Rowan's flattery seriously.

After all, he had only been in Liverpool for a few weeks, and Rowan had almost destroyed his police intelligence agency in London.

However, after all, Rowan is the top leader of Scotland Yard, and his face still needs to be taken care of.

Arthur smiled and replied: "Although I don't seek my position, I still take it as my duty to benefit the country. But if public opinion proves that only the establishment of a police school can best benefit the country and the citizens of London, then I will only Be able to take responsibility, completely abandon your own selfishness, and help Scotland Yard establish a good reserve police education system."

Just like Arthur doesn't care about scene talk, Rowan also doesn't care about scene talk.

But there was no other way. We had to go through such a process anyway, so he could only pinch his nose, show the usual dignified and decent smile of the police officers, and encourage: "I think all the police officers here are the same as me, we all I think it's best for you to build the school. Arthur, do your best, we believe you will be able to achieve results there."

Arthur raised his hand and saluted: "As you command, sir!"

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, Luo Wan changed the subject and said: "However, considering that the burden on your shoulders is too heavy, we will also lighten it for you appropriately. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has previously informed us that this Passage of a Municipal Police Act is almost a sure thing.

Therefore, after the bill is passed, Scotland Yard will also undergo a new round of reorganization. Your future work focus will be mainly on the establishment of the Police Intelligence Bureau and the Police School. The Criminal Investigation Department will be split into separate criminal records center, criminal arrest department, toxicology research center and major case investigation department in accordance with the bill. The functional department is directly supervised by Deputy Minister Sir Richard Mayne.

Of course, there will certainly be many inconveniences during the transfer of power. Therefore, during the transitional stage, you still have to serve as a criminal investigation consultant for a period of time to help the newly appointed personnel become familiar with the relevant business of criminal investigation. There should be no problem in this regard, right? "

Regarding the upcoming reorganization, Arthur had already obtained detailed information from Viscount Melbourne in advance.

Separating the Criminal Investigation Department from his own hands was also Arthur's initiative.

Of course, Arthur did this not because he was selfless, but because he felt that he could not take all the good things to himself.

Parliament is very sensitive to the monopoly of power by government departments, and even more sensitive to the concentration of power in the hands of one person.

It would not be a good thing if MPs discovered that half of Scotland Yard's functions were controlled by Mr. Hastings.

Moreover, to be honest, the Criminal Investigation Department is not entirely a good job.

Although there is a major case in London and they are in the limelight, the prerequisite for the limelight is that they can solve the case. If you can't solve the case, you'll be spit on.

This is a place where risks and rewards coexist.

Moreover, there were many specific matters regarding the reorganization of Scotland Yard that Rowan did not explain at the meeting.

Just because Arthur is no longer directly in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department doesn't mean that he really doesn't care about serious crimes in London.

The London Police Intelligence Bureau he is responsible for will also undergo a round of reorganization after the bill is released.

After this round of reorganization, the Intelligence Bureau will become more independent from Scotland Yard.

Even like the split Criminal Investigation Department, the Intelligence Bureau will set up a special arrest team, criminal records center, and file management center. Of course, there is also the Illegal Publications Censorship Center.

But the only difference between these departments of the Intelligence Agency and their brothers at Scotland Yard is that they are listed under different names.

They are the London Police Intelligence Branch 1, 2 and 3, etc.

As for why numerical coding is used instead of calling the new department specific functions.

Arthur's official answer is - my memory is not good, digital encoding is simple and easy to remember.

Of course, the detailed information here involves national security, so it is inconvenient for Superintendent Hastings to disclose too much.

If you want to know more, you can go to the fifth branch of the restructured Police Intelligence Bureau for direct consultation.

However, although the reorganized Police Intelligence Bureau looks good, compared with an organization like Scotland Yard that is on the surface, they still have various limitations in their operations.

Except in most cases of a state of emergency, they have no way to apply for an arrest warrant and arrest someone directly at their door like their brother departments.

Moreover, Arthur felt that even if Viscount Melbourne gave them the power to arrest people directly, he would probably not take the initiative to exercise it.

After all, the forces in the judiciary are too complicated. If the judges ask what kind of organization the Police Intelligence Bureau is, it will be difficult for him to answer.

Director Rowan watched Arthur sit down again amidst the applause of the superintendents, and could only comfort himself with the fact that the Criminal Investigation Department was finally back under his control.

Facing the expectant eyes of his subordinates, Luo Wan also understood what they were thinking.

Do you just want to go to the Criminal Investigation Department to get gold-plated?

After all, in the past year, Arthur has dominated the limelight in this position.

However, Luo Wan has not yet figured out how to arrange the follow-up.

Just as the Whigs carefully selected Arthur at Scotland Yard, he also had to find a few obedient people to put in the department where Arthur once held the sky with one hand.

Luo Wan poured cold water on his subordinates when he opened his mouth.

"From now on, we should understand that the main goal we want to achieve is to prevent crime. The police should work towards this great goal, which will enable us to more effectively protect the safety of people and property, maintain the stability of social order, and achieve the goal of police All other goals. Our mission is not just to detect and punish a criminal after he has successfully committed a crime. That would actually be a failure of policing."

The superintendents responded in unison: "Understood, sir."

"Okay." Luo Wan stood up and picked up the documents: "The meeting is over for today."

As soon as he reached the door, he suddenly stopped again, turned and spoke to his subordinates: "I forgot to mention that cholera prevention and control is still the top priority this year. If we can't even do regional control well, I think This kind of person should not be able to give him any further expectations."

After saying this, Rowan led the deputy director Sir Mayne and pushed the door open and walked out.

The police officers looked at each other in confusion. After a long time, they saw the superintendents in charge of control in the East District suddenly woke up from a dream. They hurriedly followed out, shouting as they walked: "Director, we think this is unfair."