This work investigates the evolution of the Metropolitan Police into a professional force and their specific role in regulating moral behavior in London between 1870 and 1914. Stefan Petrow, a historian specializing in the development of policing, utilizes archival records from the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police to analyze the intersection of law enforcement and social reform. The book argues that the professionalization of the force was deeply influenced by the shifting public expectations regarding habitual criminality, vice, and social order during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Historians and criminologists frequently cite this text as a definitive account of the institutional development of the London police force. Experts highlight the book's meticulous use of primary source material to illustrate the complex tensions between state authority and public morality.