DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 211 



extending throughout the District ; but, as is so often the case, 

 it was reserved for the stress of war to occasion the first compre- 

 hensive step in the way of unity, at first seeming radical but in 

 the end coming to be recognized as so natural as to make the 

 wonder to be that it was so long delayed. This first step is to 

 be found in the Act of Congress of August 6, 1861 (12 Stats. 

 320), forming the cities of Washington and Georgetown and the 

 county outside of the limits of those cities, in a word the entire 

 District, into "The Metropolitan Police District of the District 

 of Columbia." There was provided for this Police District a 

 Board of Commissioners of Police, consisting of the Mayors of 

 Washington and Georgetown and five other members, three 

 from Washington, one from Georgetown and one from the 

 county, to be appointed by the President by and with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate ; which Board was vested with the 

 police powers to be exercised throughout the District : including 

 the preservation of the peace, the prevention of crime and ar- 

 rest of offenders, the protection of rights of person and property 

 and the public health, and the enforcement of the laws gener- 

 ally applicable to matters of police. A police force was estab- 

 lished, possessing in every part of the District the common-law 

 and statutory police powers of constables, and provision was 

 made for the division of the District into police precincts, with 

 convenient station houses, for the more efficient administration 

 of the police power, and a superintendent was created to act as 

 "the head and chief" of the force, subject to the orders and 

 regulations of the Board. The several municipalities were 

 stripped of the police power as such, and the existing constabu- 

 laries were abolished. The initial act w'as several times 

 amended and supplemented, but in the main the police system 

 as originallv devised remains to this dav. 



This was, in the beginning, not a popular departure from the 

 old system, but its wisdom was soon abundantly manifested ; 

 and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that a more necessary, 

 and, in the result, a more justifiable step was never taken ; for 

 the possibilities ui the situation, had the old system been left in 

 operation, are ditBcult, if not impossible, of exaggeration. 



The establishment of the Metropolitan Police District bore. 



