conference points

Beech, hornbeam, sycamore. Frome, 10 December 2022.

In March 1862 [the chief constable] issued a broadside of denunciation of the inefficiency of [the Isle of Wight's] police.  ... The [constables on night duty] were rarely visited after midnight, or 1.30 a.m. at the latest and no adequate check had been exercised to prevent constables "from leaving their beats before the hour appointed for them to come off duty or to prevent them from passing their time in public houses when they should have been on patrol, or to prevent them from booking one another at the different conference points without patrolling to them". 

[Ian A. Watt, A History of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary 1839 - 1966 (1967), p. 20.]

One of the delights of a bookswap is discovering books I would never have supposed I wanted to read. A History of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary 1839 - 1966 was one. I took it away last week to flick through it, then found myself slowing down, eventually reading longer chunks and finally going right back to the beginning and starting over. Even now I cannot pretend to be absorbing every detail of pay increases or restructuring or commendations for distinguished service. But the book has plenty of things that engaged me, -- church attendance and paying for prayer books, the riots at Winchester (1908) and Andover (1914), the dangers of bikes and horses, barracks and fairgrounds, the treatment of dissenters, gypsies and aliens, armed police, police in war-time, police on strike (1918-19), preparations for D-Day --  but this post focusses on something a bit less dramatic. My eye snagged on the unfamiliar term "conference points" and in the end I've compiled a kind of anthology of conference points which explains the term's changing meaning better than I can. 

A graver matter altogether was mentioned in a General Order of October 1906, which superintendents were charged to see that every constable took a copy of in his own writing. This dealt with the offences of missing conference points and making false entries in journals. The failure to attend strictly to conference points was a most serious offence, in that the whole system existed for the purpose of preventing burglaries and other such crimes. ...

[Ibid., p. 83]

*

I feel, though I have no proof, that "conference" should be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, to emphasize the idea of conferring together.

These conference points addressed an issue inherent in the concept of a police force. An army, being gathered together, could be controlled by commands, bugles, visible signals and messengers on horseback. But a police force was necessarily dispersed, upholding the rule of law across the wider community. How could information be shared, action coordinated, synergies realised, or performance monitored? How could the police act as a cohesive force and not merely as what preceded them, the individual Dogberries who answered to their Squires and maintained the village lock-up?

It answered to two aspects of early policing. First, that the police derived from the watch; their main duty remained night patrol. The Winchester force, formed in 1832, had seven constables. Only one did day duty, the others all did night duty. (The main motive for creating the Winchester force was suppression of vagrancy.) The other aspect was drunkenness in the force itself. In 1840, Hampshire superintendents "were directed to be very particular in looking after the men on pay days immediately after they had received their money; and any of whom they had the slightest suspicion were to be ordered to be at certain places at fixed hours in order that their superintendents might see if they were perfectly regular and sober" (Watt, p. 10). 

*

The first volume of the Bishop’s Stortford Police Archive to be prepared for digitisation, the Constable’s Journal (daily logbook) of PC 13, Arthur E. Elderton of ‘B’ Division, for the nine months from July 1915 to April 1916, sheds some light on his daily (and nightly) life on duty.  ...

PC Elderton carried out routine duties, without the benefit of modern technology or communications, dealing face-to-face with colleagues, the public and the soldiers based in local billets and at Hockerill Camp.  He pounded the beat, meeting other policemen on duty when he attended Conference Points such as the Corn Exchange, the Bridge Inn, The Causeway, the Cemetery, Northgate End and the Police Station at set times throughout the shift.

[Maggie Dines, on the Herts Past Policing site: https://www.hertspastpolicing.org.uk/content/about-us/conservation/a-policemans-lot .]

*

Confidential

7th November 1915

To all Superintendents

I quite appreciate what has been said by the various Superintendents with reference to their shortage of attendance at night conference points, nor am I unaware of the fact that the amount of work of every description which they are now called upon to perform is greatly in excess of what is the case in normal times.

From what I have seen and learnt in going round the County I also appreciate the fact that many hours of work have been ungrudgingly given by Superintendents (especially) and others in consequence of war conditions. I feel I cannot however let omissions of this nature now under observation pass unnoticed because juniors are liable to take their cue from seniors and a general falling off in the performance of regular duties may consequently occur.

Under no circumstance can I exempt particular Superintendents from visiting conference points but I leave it to Superintendents to do all in their power and within reasonable bounds, to set an example in their divisions to juniors, and see that a strict standard of attention to duty is maintained. I am of the opinion that two night patrols per month after midnight at some distance from Divisional Headquarters should be performed, that 2 or 3 conference points should be visited on each occasion, and that such attendance should be in the nature of surprise visits.

J.A. Unett Capt.,

Chief Constable

[From Essex Police: Night Conference Points 1915. History Notebook Number 17 by John Woodgate.

https://www.essex.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/essex/about-us/museum/research/history-notebooks/17.pdf  .]

In far flung rural districts the effort of carrying out these checks was significant; each Superintendent had only the choice of riding his horse (already exhausted, like himself, from the efforts of the day) or riding his bicycle. The chief constable knew this, and in 1919 the force ordered four Ford motor cars. But in fact another emerging technology would soon relieve the monitoring officer of any need to travel at all.

English Elm, Ash. Frome, 12 December 2022.

*

Communication between the Police Station and Officers on various beats was at first by means of “conference points”, when Sergeants would meet Constables on their beats at appointed times, to ensure all was well.

In 1925 the City was newly-equipped with over a dozen Police boxes (the blue structures, shown left, frequently referred to these days as “Tardis” boxes), and a few triangular–shaped pillars. The idea of these was basically to provide a telephone for the public to contact any of the Emergency Services, and for the Police Station to be able to contact the nearest Police Officer by means of a flashing orange light at the top. (Bear in mind there were few private houses with telephones in 1925).

... The Boxes were large and square, and of wooden construction, with enough space on one side for an Officer to sit inside and make notes, or have his meal break. On the left was a small door that opened for anyone to use the emergency direct telephone line.

[Exeter Memories: Police boxes and pillars. Contributed by three former Exeter City Police Officers–Sydney Rowsell, Peter Hinchliffe and Dick Passmore:

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_organisations/police-boxes.php .]

*

Constables made what were called conference points. This they did up until the late 1960s. Some will remember seeing the policeman standing by the telephone box for 10 minutes every hour. Here he stood waiting for the sergeant to meet him or, for the station to telephone with a job. Before there were call boxes, many conference points were at large houses. These points accounted for the size of the policeman's stomach, because they got to know and charmed the majority of the cooks and housemaids.

All this John [John Finch, a Brockham policeman of long standing] would recognise as, nothing much changed in over a hundred years. When radios came, there was no need for conference points. However, the new radios were seen by the Chief Constable as a potential opportunity for the constable to skive and not cover his beat. Points ensured that they went to the furthest house. With a radio they could sit with their feet up. Points stayed for a while until the ridiculous nature of the order became apparent, and they were abandoned.

[Bob Bartlett, Policing in Brockham (Surrey): http://www.brockhamhistory.org/brockham-people/police/ .]

*

I was posted to High Wycombe on the 12th August 1963, unfortunately just missing the initial excitement of the Great Train Robbery. My first day is etched on my memory as I still have my faded pencil inscribed pocket book to remind me. The dubious honour of accompanying me on my first patrol fell to P.C. 1 Sheldon Bressington, as I walked self-consciously along the High Street I felt as if I had two heads. On reaching the Public House we went inside, presumably to check that the Landlord was complying with regulations. “Come on Landlord clear this bar”. Demanded P.C. Bressington who was clearly a stickler for the enforcement of such regulations, the bar cleared as if by magic. We then approached the Landlord who was busy pulling three pints of bitter but instead of the formal caution I was expecting, we informally accepted his hospitality. So there I was just twenty minutes into a thirty year career, sitting at a bar supping ale. Not being an experienced drinker the alcohol reached my legs before I reached the door, memories of the next hour or so are rather hazy. Nobody had told us at basic training that drinking on duty was compulsory.

There are many things I remember about the old High Wycombe nick but the two main features for me were the sleek black Mk2 Jaguars of the Divisional Traffic Department and the mortuary in the corner of the back yard. I have happy memories of the occasional duty in a Jag. With the likes of Bernie Twist, Acker Floyd and Joe Fell. Unfortunately the memory of my first visit to the Mortuary hunts me still, when together with another young Probationer I was required to move a rather large gentleman from the refrigerator and place him on the table. He was on the top shelf and there was no mechanical aid for lifting him down. We carefully slid the tray from the shelf but failed to calculate the full effect of gravity, the body slid from the tray and pinned my colleague to the wall. Our first reaction was to try blind panic but that did not seem to work very well at all. We had of course been highly trained in the art of restraining violent prisoners but had never been taught how to deal with less than co-operative corpse, on this occasion the corps won.

The golden age before the introduction of personal radios we made fixed conference points each hour, Wycombe had the luxury of several strategically placed Police Boxes. These structures were later immortalised as Dr. Who’s time machine but the original Police ones provided generations of Bobbies shelter from the eliminates and a place for a quick smoke out of sight of the Inspector. They were about four feet square and were lavishly equipped with a bench, telephone, three thousand dog ends and a blue flashing light on top. I once occupied such a box with tree other large Bobbies and was reliably informed that they could accommodate up to six as long as nobody broke wind or smoked Old Shag.

[Mike Smith, Bucks Constabulary Special Memories: http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/bch/docs/policeofficers%20stories.html .]

In 1967 Mike Smith left High Wycombe and took up a post as village bobby at Lacey Green.

As a village Bobby I would now work on my own with supervision by Sergeant Bert Buggy at Princes Risborough. The Police house had a small office which contained a desk, filing cabinet, telephone, type writer, my own personal world war three early warning system and a large box containing an air raid siren. This was the cold war 1960's and our nearest neighbour was Strike Command HQ, the Soviet Union's number one nuclear target. I did a test run with the siren; it took 45 minutes to drag out into the front garden, read the instructions and assemble it. The estimated time of arrival of a nuclear missile strike was 4 minutes; this left me 41 minutes short of warning the good folk of Lacey Green of a very loud bang.

Other features of the Police House were a notice board outside the gate, a 'County Police' sign over the front door and a very loud bell above the bedroom door to indicate an incoming telephone call. The latter sounded at 2 am on our first night; I was still suffering from the shock when I answered the phone, the caller enquired if her lost cat had been found. On my way back to bed, I made a slight adjustment to the alarm bell and it never bothered us again. Joan still blames that alarm for the almost immediate arrival of our daughter Emma. We were, in every sense, living above the shop. The house itself was a bit basic by modem standards, having no electric points upstairs for example. It was built in the mid 1930's for £350.00 and was situated in Main Road, opposite Stocken Farm. The original Victorian Police cottage was just across the road and still occupied as a private residence.

The village Bobby had been a common feature of rural life for many years, it required a Constable to live in the village and accept 24 hour responsibility for his beat, which in my case included Lacey Green, Speen, Loosley Row and Hampden. A married man was usually given this task, because his wife was expected to answer the phone and see to callers at the office when the Constable was out on patrol. Unfortunately, the public's expectation of my wife's legal knowledge was sometimes a little high, but taking in stray donkeys was all in a days work.

Prior to the 1960's, most Policing was carried out by a solitary patrolling Constable. Some personal radios were introduced in urban areas in the middle 1960's; unfortunately the range of this early equipment was too short for rural use. Traffic Division and Supervisory Officers had vehicles which were fitted with VHF radios, but mostly the Bobby's only means of communication was by telephone. This was achieved by a system of hourly fixed conference points, the Bobby would stand next to a prearranged public telephone box at a prearranged time, so that he could be contacted if required.

In High Wycombe we had the luxury of several Police telephone boxes... Without radios, Police response times to non urgent incidents could be a bit slow, but the public appeared to be aware of our limitations and reasonably tolerated the situation. A real bonus to my rural beat was the smart black 350cc Triumph motor cycle that went with the job, unfortunately, it was not equipped with a radio, but at least it beat cycling up those Chiltern hills. ...

[Mike Smith, "The Last Village Constable": https://www.laceygreen.com/Sections/Policing.php .]

I find I can't lay Watts' History aside yet, so here are a few other things that caught my eye:

Blacksmiths

Early policing was about maintaining quiet on the streets, especially at night. The police existed for a settled population of home-dwellers. The police's traditional opponents (in their eyes) were "vagrants", gipsies and army deserters. Vagrancy (having no visible means of support) was illegal. Domestic crime, on the other hand, makes little appearance in early police history. Some of those ancient patterns still cast their shadow today. 

It took a while for these informal policing boundaries to be established. For instance, in the early days constables used to enter public houses to clear out the drunks. But this made them apt to be assaulted, and in 1845 the practice was discontinued. It was hoped that landlords would become more prudent in serving liquor to those who were already intoxicated, knowing they could not count on the police to come to their aid (Watts, pp. 18-19).

Though army camps tended to be trouble hotspots, the police were closely connected with the military, e.g. by a similar attention to matters like uniform, and by a culture of licensed use of force. Early chief constables usually had a military background. The forces often worked together. 

Another activity was that of attempting to obtain volunteers for the Hampshire regiments of militia to try to bring them up to strength. For every volunteer who was approved 5s. was to be paid to the police constable who brought him forward. Bills publicising service with the militia were circulated and it is significant that the chief constable recommended that some should be affixed to the blacksmiths' shops. Rural life was still largely centred on horse transport and advertisements at the blacksmiths were likely to be as effective as those at service stations today.

(Watt, p. 13)

Centralization

Unification of the Winchester force with Hampshire did not occur until 1942, but there had been several earlier attempts to consolidate borough forces, which were fiercely opposed. "It was held to be inimical to the principle of municipal self-government and in some quarters was seen as a sinister step in the direction of the worst type of continental despotism". The Winchester Mayor's petition of protest (June 1854), regarding what would become the County and Borough Police Act of 1856, stated: 

That your petitioners regard the bill in question as an unconstitutional interference with the privileges of boroughs and subversive of the independence and right of self-government secured to them by the Municipal Corporations Reform Act, as it will practically place the entire control of the whole police of the kingdom in the hands of Her Majesty's Home Secretary.

(Watts, p. 17)