The 1832 Reform Act established the Parliamentary Borough of Manchester. The Municipal Borough was not coterminous with the boundaries adopted for parliamentary representation and comprised six townships. One consequence was that policing arrangements in these six townships were placed under unified control. This article assesses the significance of local improvement acts for policing and the nature of the transition between "old" and "new" policing. The establishment of "new" policing in Manchester became part of a broader dispute concerning the political control of municipal administration. The author focuses on the effect of political considerations, especially opposition from local Tory interests in the borough, on the progress of police reform. The scale of Tory resistance to the implementation of the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act resulted in a legal challenge being mounted to the validity of the Charter of Incorporation, which fused the six townships into a borough in 1838. This opposition resulted in administrative confusion and a proliferation of police forces in the area. This situation prompted the Whig government to intervene and pass special legislation, the 1839 Manchester Police Act, which sought to achieve the purposes of the 1835 legislation regarding policing. 80 footnotes