History of the Metropolitan Police Service by the end of the 19th century. During the 1860s, the flintlock pistols that had been purchased in 1829 were decommissioned from service, being superseded by 622 Beaumont–Adams revolvers firing the .450 cartridge which were loaned from the army stores at the Tower of London following the Clerkenwell bombing. In 1883, a ballot was carried out to gather information on officers' views on whether they wished to be armed, and 4,430 out of 6,325 officers serving on outer divisions requested to be issued with revolvers. The now obsolete Adams revolver was returned to stores for emergencies, and the Bulldog 'Metropolitan
History of the Metropolitan Police Service Wyles was appointed the first female Inspector to the Criminal Intelligence Department. A policy in place from 1927 until 1946 forced women to leave the Metropolitan Police if they got married. Female police officers were not authorised to take fingerprints until 1937. The Police Federation, the rank-and-file staff association, let women join in 1948. The first women police officers to receive George Medals for courage were Sergeant Ethel Bush and Kathleen Parrott, who had been separately attacked by a sex offender they were on a stakeout in pursuit of in 1955. In 1968 Sislin Fay Allen became the Metropolitan Police’s