The Metropolitan Police Act 1839 (2&3 Vict. c .47) was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act enlarged the district of, and gave greatly increased powers to the Metropolitan Police established by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829.
Section 2 of the Act allowed for the enlargement of the Metropolitan Police District to include places in a radius of 15 miles (24 kilometres) from Charing Cross.
Section 5 gave constables of the Metropolitan Police all "powers and privileges of constabulary" in the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and on the River Thames within or adjoining Middlesex, Surrey, Berkshire, Essex, Kent and the City of London (the MPA 1829 had already given them constabulary powers within Middlesex, Surrey, Essex and Kent).
The Act gave the police force powers over shipping arriving in the Port of London and using the Thames. Among these powers were:
A number of activities were to regulated within the Metropolitan Police District:
Section 54 of the Act enumerated a long list of "Nuisances by Persons in Thoroughfares" that were now prohibited. Among the outlawed activities, for which the miscreant could be taken into custody and fined, were:
The Act also outlawed the use of dog carts, obliged street musicians to move on when asked and allowed the imprisonment of "drunkards guilty of riotous or indecent behaviour".
Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
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