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[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
In the 'privatised' system, individuals were rewarded for arresting criminals. Parish officers, for example, received 5 shillings (25p) for each vagrant collared. Citizens, encouraged to become vigilante 'thief-takers', could win big rewards, such as £40 for turning in a highwayman.
At the end of the 18th century, London had a population of nearly a million but only 2,000 watchmen - the lowest rank of law-keepers, who were often old and decrepit – and 1,000 officers, the next rank up. They couldn't begin to deal with the large numbers of people who were turning to crime, let alone address the reasons why these individuals were desperate enough to resort to pickpocketing, prostitution or rioting against rising food prices.
Indeed, even some of the supposed law enforcers were part of the criminal underworld. A notorious example was 'thief-taker general' Jonathan Wild (1682-1725), a professional bounty hunter and the man who caught Jack Sheppard. As well as the large amounts of money he made by betraying his partners in crime for a fee, Wild operated an extremely lucrative 'lost property' agency that sold back to their owners goods whose thefts he had planned.