Scotland Yard

Scotland Yardis located south of St. James's Park in Westminster. The original headquarters of Scotland Yard were in Whitehall (the street in London where many of the government departments are). Scotland Yard was so named because it was part of a medieval palace (Whitehall Palace) that had housed Scottish royalty when the latter were in London on visits. The London police force was created in 1829 by an act introduced in Parliament by the home secretary, Sir Robert Peel (hence the nicknames " bobbies" and " peelers" for policemen). The Metropolitan Police's duties are the detection and prevention of crime, the preservation of public order, the supervision of road traffic, and the licensing of public vehicles. The administrative head of Scotland Yard is the commissioner, who is appointed by the crown on the recommendation of the home secretary. Beneath the commissioner are various assistant commissioners overseeing such operations as administration, traffic and transport, criminal investigation and police recruitment and training. Scotland Yard set up its Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in 1878. The CID initially was a small force of plainclothes detectives who gathered information on criminal activities. Criminal Investigation Department deals with all aspects of criminal investigation and includes the fingerprint and photography sections, the Fraud Squad (the department in the British police force that examines fraud in business), the Flying Squad (a special group of police officers in Britain whose job is to travel quickly to the place where there has been a serious crime), the metropolitan police laboratory, and the detective-training school. Scotland Yard keeps extensive files on all known criminals in the United Kingdom. It also has a special branch of police who guard visiting dignitaries, royalty, and statesmen. Finally, Scotland Yard is responsible for maintaining links between British law-enforcement agencies and Interpol.