MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - The Metropolitan Police Service was formed on September 29, 1829, under the Metropolitan Police Act introduced by British Home Secretary Robert Peel. Richard Mayne and Charles Rowan were its first commissioners.
The initial force consisted of some 1,000 people who patrolled the streets within a seven-mile (11 kilometer) radius of Charing Cross – an area populated by some 2 million people at that time.
The Metropolitan Police Service is responsible for law enforcement in most of London, excluding the City of London borough, which has its own police force.
The media often refers to the London police department by the name Scotland Yard, which is a metonym for its headquarters.
Its name derives from Great Scotland Yard, a street in Westminster district where the Metropolitan Police Service's original headquarters was located. It is believed that buildings in the area were used to accommodate Scottish royalty centuries ago.
By 1887, Scotland Yard had taken over several buildings on Whitehall Place, two buildings on Great Scotland Yard, several offices near Buckingham Palace, and various annexes, warehouses and storage facilities. In 1890, the offices moved to the Victoria area of London and were named New Scotland Yard.
In 1967, New Scotland Yard moved to Broadway. In September 2014, it was announced that the police would move to a new and more technologically advanced headquarters by the River Thames. The new premises will allow more officers to work remotely using tablets and smart phones.
Scotland Yard currently employs more than 50,000 people and supervises 32 boroughs of Greater London with a population of more than 8.5 million people.
The Metropolitan Police Service is made up of many subdivisions, including 32 Borough Operational Command Units, an Aviation Security unit that carries out law enforcement in the city's airports, and a number of specialist divisions, such as the Dog Support Unit and the Mounted Branch. The Metropolitan Police also provides special protection services for the Royal Family, ministers and public officials.
London's police service has an annual budget of 3.6 billion pounds, which is more than 25 percent of the total police budget for England and Wales.
The Queen, in agreement with the home secretary, appoints the head of Scotland Yard. Since January 2011, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has been the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
