> I wonder when the thinking on this changed. In London, I believe the first "professional" police force ("The Bow Street Runners") was created by the magistra

> I wonder when the thinking on this changed. In London, I believe the first "professional" police force ("The Bow Street Runners") was created by the magistrate Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones. That's in the early 1700s. I imagine the idea took some decades to spread across the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding