Flying Squad

The Flying Squad (also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7 and SCD7) is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The squad's purpose is to investigate commercial armed and unarmed robberies, along with the prevention and investigation of other serious crime to which a firearm is produced or intimated.

The squad was originally formed on an experimental basis by Detective Chief Inspector Wensley. In October 1919, Wensley summoned twelve detectives to Scotland Yard to form the squad. The group was initially named the "Mobile Patrol Experiment" and its original orders were to perform surveillance and gather intelligence on known robbers and pickpockets, using a horse-drawn carriage with covert holes cut into the canvas.

In 1920, it was officially reorganised under the authority of then Commissioner Sir Nevil Macready. Headed by Detective Inspector Walter Hambrook, the squad was composed of twelve detective officers, including Irish-born Jeremiah Lynch (1888–1953), who had earned a fearsome reputation for tracking wartime German spies and for building up the case against confidence trickster Horatio Bottomley. The Mobile Patrol Experiment was given authorisation to carry out duties anywhere in the Metropolitan Police District, meaning that they did not have to observe Divisions, giving rise to the name of the "Flying Squad" because the unit operated all across London without adhering to borough policing boundaries.

Throughout the 1920s, the squad was standardised and expanded, and the establishment was expanded to forty officers, under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Fred "Nutty" Sharpe (until his retirement in July 1937). In 1948, the squad was given the designation of "C.O.(C.8)" for "Commissioner's Office Crime 8" and was augmented. By 1956 it made 1000 arrests per year for the first time.

...
Wikipedia