“To seek and preserve public favours not by pandering to public opinion; but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law.” General Instructions to new police officers, 1829.
In 1822, when Robert Peel first canvassed the idea of creating a professional police force, he was unable to persuade his colleagues of its merits. Their concern, as they perceived to be the case in France, was that the police would be an instrument of the state or the mob.
So in 1829, when he returned to the topic as home secretary, Peel was particularly concerned to reassure fellow MPs and others that his proposed force would be independent of political influence. And this appeared among the so-called Peel principles (in fact written not by him but