Toronto Police Service in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward". The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world's oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia the U.S. state of Maryland to patrol Washington County. After the formation of the Metropolitan Police Board, which was to govern the new police department, Lincoln sent a member of the board to study the New York City Police Department and its structure, itself modeled on the London Metropolitan Police Service. The Metropolitan Police Board unanimously chose one of its members, William Benning Webb who was commissioned as a Major in the army, to serve as the first Chief of Police, the formal title being "Major and Superintendent". The Police Board initially divided the District into 10 precincts. The First