Metropolitan Police Service Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Met's current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, situated on the Victoria Embankment. The Metropolitan Police Service, whose officers became affectionately known as "bobbies", was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and on 29 September of that year, the first units of the service appeared on the streets of London. In 1839, the Marine Police Force, which had been formed in 1798, was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Police. In 1837, it also incorporated with the Bow Street Horse Patrol that had been organised in 1805. Since January 2012, the Mayor
Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal to misleading statements to the public and government oversight bodies to cover-up wrongdoing, and/or led to attempts to stifle the voices of whistle-blowers. Metropolitan Police spokespersons have maintained that investigations were pursued appropriately in light of information and guidance available to them and in light of competing priorities for their resources. While Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1993 to 2000, Paul Condon established the Met's anti-corruption unit, acknowledging that police corruption was not an occasional threat, but a permanent, ongoing one. Condon's initiatives all but closed down communication between Met police and the news media. Condon's successor, John Stevens