When was the first flying squad formed?
First FLYING SQUAD
The first FLYING SQUAD was formed as a small mobile detachment of 12 detective officers under the command of Detective Insp. Walter Hambrook in October 1918. Their original transport consisted of a single horse-drawn covered wagon hired from the Great Western Railway, but this was replaced in 1920 by two ex-RAF Crossley tenders. Within a few days of their first appearance in these vehicles in September, the men of the ‘mobile patrol experiment’ had been given their more romantic title of the ‘Flying Squad’ by W.G.T. Crook, Chief Crime Reporter of the Daily Mail.
