History
Many police forces in the United Kingdom began with a uniform consisting of a swallow-tail coat and top hat. A pillbox or kepi hat along with a frock coat were introduced in the 1860s, along with helmets designed especially for protection against attack and the weather. Truncheons themselves had been introduced as early as 1764, however it was not until 1994 that police forces in the UK started to nationally standardise their uniform prompting the introduction of the duty belt to contain such equipment, instead of previously having their staff carry equipment in their handbags or adapted pockets. In the case of the earliest equipment carrying, a cutlass or firearm was usually clipped to the belt of the frock coat. In fact pockets themselves were not introduced until the early 1900s in some cases.
Before duty belts, British female officers carried their truncheons, which were shorter than the male version, in their handbags along with their police notebook as a matter of routine. Male officers carried handcuffs, whereas female officers were not permitted to without special permission. During the 1950s and 1960s the Sam Browne belt was in popular use by police officers in the USA.
Read more about this topic: Police Duty Belt
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)