page_title: Thief-taker
section_title: A polished image: the Bow Street Runners
hierarchical_section_title: Thief-taker / A polished image: the Bow Street Runners
caption_attribution_description: Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London: This engraving was published as Plate 11 of Microcosm of London (1808) (see File:Microcosm of London Plate 011 - Bow Street Office .jpg).
context_page_description: In English legal history, a thief-taker was a private individual hired to capture criminals. The widespread establishment of professional police in England did not occur until the 19th century. With the rising crime rate and newspapers to bring this to the attention of the public, thief-takers arose to partially fill the void in bringing criminals to justice. These were private individuals much like bounty hunters. However, thief-takers were usually hired by crime victims, while bounty hunters were paid by bail bondsmen to catch fugitives who skipped their court appearances and hence forfeited their bail. Both types also collected bounties offered by the authorities. Sometimes, thief-takers would act as go-betweens, negotiating the return of stolen goods for a fee. However, they were often corrupt themselves, for example extorting protection money from the crooks they were supposed to catch. Government-funded rewards for the capture of criminals were a corrupting influence, leading directly to the Macdaniel scandal.
context_section_description: Thief takers played and important role in the development of the modern police force. After the execution of Wild, the Thief-Taker General and corrupt criminal, a void in law enforcement emerged, and public officers nearly repented his death: the number of apprehensions, prosecutions and hangings had decreased significantly, as well as the readiness for the retrieval of the stolen goods. Despite the increasing unpopularity of thief-takers, whether it was for the dubious methods of Wild, or the scandal generated by the criminal gang of MacDaniel, rewards continued to be paid to stimulate thief-taking, thus validating those figures involved in active policing. Thief-takers were essential to the authorities for an effective and efficient law enforcement. By force of the adverse circumstances, it was an arduous task for the public authority to detect, apprehend and prosecute felons all alone.
  In 1751 the novelist Henry Fielding wrote a pamphlet entitled Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, in which he tries to restore the good image of thief-takers, showing how valuable they were for law enforcement and how dangerous for their life it was to secure criminals to the justice: the ill behaviour of a few did not have to erase the laudable services they performed for the community. Henry and his half-brother John also established a primitive form of organised police force: they hired thief-takers and former constables to go from their magistrate's office in Bow Street and investigate, catch criminals or recover stolen goods. At the beginning the payment was in rewards, but later these men also received a weekly wage of a guinea. To keep distance from the negative opinion of thief-takers, he also decided to give a new name to those under his service, that is Runners.
  At the beginning the public was not very willing to this new organisation of law enforcement because the ill practices of thief-takers were not forgotten yet, and it meant also moving a step closer to the establishment of a professional form of policing as in France. The English feared a change in the direction of the French law enforcement system, because the French law was perceived as too intrusive: a loss of the traditional liberties the English were proud of was unacceptable for many.
  The Bow Street Runners reached quickly the public awareness and approval thanks to the success in defeating a notorious gang of robbers in 1753, and to the massive advertisements published by John Fielding in the newspapers. Sir John Fielding managed to create a standing group of Runners, and to introduce improvements in the policing system. For example, he proposed more rules to control receivers and pawnbrokers, the creation of a policing group that could move with horses to be quicker in the pursuit of criminals, and the sharing of information among the several parts of the country, so that criminals would not have escaped prosecution so easily.
caption: Bow Street Magistrate's Courtroom at 4 Bow Street, in London. The Bow Street Runners were London's first professional police force.
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