Anno 1790

There is given much detail to 18th century life in this tv series by the Swedish government television Sveriges Television except from one essential thing: there were no police force in the 1700s!

In the famous painting The Coffee Raid (Kaffebeslaget) by Martin Rudolf Heland (1765-1814) for example, during the prohibition on coffee, the "Law's henchmen" (Lagens hantlangare) who surprises a coffee-drinking party of ladies, who hurry to try to hide their coffee-drinking, are no police officers.

It wasn't until the 1860's during the industrial revolution when the poor people from the countryside moved into the cities and the upper class wanted to be protected from the criminal gangs, drunkenness and prostitution, it was founded a police force modeled after London. And where did they recruit the new police officers? Of course, from the criminal gangs.