Why does the City of London have its own police force?

Question

How come there is a small, independent City of London force? Would it not be more effective to have a merger with the Metropolitan Police?

Answer 1

According to the susidiarity principe it's always better a  subordinated force specializes in some areas; the efficiency is higher.

Answer 2

Because London is where the majority of crimes in England happen. Although I think they do work with the Metropolitan Police aswell.

Answer 3

the city of london police deal with, the city of london [which is the square  mile], while the metropolitan police  deals with greater london,

Answer 4

http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPo...

Answer 5

Most all incorporated cities have their own police forces.  These cities can be combined within a larger community of metropolis, or counties in USA, where there is a county police force, and a city police force.  There is also a state or regional police.  Within some cities there can be national government institutions with their police.  Each of these police forces compete for funding, and sometimes cooperate with various resources, like radio dispatch, criminal records data bases.

Answer 6

its historic - it is a different area, it was not part of greater London hence they had their own police. - its a bit like saying why does England have lots of different county constabularies when one big police force would do the job.

Answer 7

The City of London Police, responsible for the square mile, argue their strong point is their specialism in tackling financial crimes such as large scale fraud. I can see the point in that with so many banks and financial institutions in a small area.

But this is not the only strange police force. Could the Met not do the work of the Royal Parks Constabulary? Could local forces not take over the responsibilities of the British Transport Police?

Answer 8

I'm guessing it's like how in the US we have city police and sheriff's offices that do exactly the same thing in the same town. For example the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Answer 9

the central square mile of the City of London is under a different jurisdiction than the Greater London area, although the two forces co-operate on most matters so a merger would probably be a waste of time