Policing

During the seventeenth century manorial constables were replaced by parish constables appointed by two Justices of the Peace in Petty or Quarter Sessions. The parish constables, like their predecessors were unpaid and were not expected to investigate crimes.  Their prime duty was to bring those accused of a crime before a Justice of the Peace.

The first steps towards a modern police force took place in London in 1815 when a force of plain clothed officers on the streets and a uniformed horse patrol were set up. The success of this force in patrolling the streets, investigating crime and arresting offenders lead, in 1829, to Sir Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, setting up a police force for London. The result was a rapid reduction in the number of crimes and soon the new force was being replicated in some other cities and large towns.  From 1835 every municipal borough had to create a police force along the same lines as that in London.

Towns and villages continued to rely on parish until 1839. In that year an Act of Parliament was passed which gave all gave counties the opportunity to establish full-time police forces, headed by a Chief Constable who was appointed by the justices of the peace of the county.

In July 1839 the Woodbridge Magistrates backed the formation of a paid police force on the grounds that “the present system of parish constables has become inadequate to the due prevention and detection of offences against the Game Laws”. By the 6th February 1840 it was agreed to set up the East Suffolk Police – one of the oldest county constabularies in England.  It was initially to have a chief constable, 3 superintendents and 60 constables. The ranks of inspectors and sergeants were introduced two years later.  The headquarters of the force was at Yoxford. From 1842 the Woodbridge Division was in the former House of Correction on Theatre Street and in 1931 it moved to a new building on Grundisburgh Road. This building was sold in 2015 and the police moved to an extension of the Fire Station on Theatre Street. The extension is diagonally opposite the former House of Correction.