History of the Metropolitan Police Service established a second and more effective committee, and acted upon its findings. Robert Peel, believing that the way to standardise the police was to make it an official paid profession, to organise it in a civilian fashion, and to make it answerable to the public. After he presented his ideas to Parliament, they were approved and made official with the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829. During the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution witnessed London becoming larger geographically and more significant economically. It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" was ineffective, both in detecting
History of the Metropolitan Police Service first black female officer. On February 1, 1971, Karpal Kaur Sandhu, born in Zanzibar but of Indian heritage, joined the Metropolitan Police and thus became the Metropolitan Police's (and Britain's) first female Asian police officer. This was before India itself had female police officers (the first female police officer in India was Kiran Bedi in 1972). The first Woman Detective Constable was appointed in 1973. 1973 was also the year that the separate Women's Department was fully integrated into the Metropolitan Police. Female police officers did not get equal pay with male police officers until 1974. In 1976 the first