There existed in the city of London a Metropolitan Police
force called the "Mobile Patrol Experiment",
a branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Formed in 1919, its police officers were trained in high-speed
driving. Their task was to prevent and detect armed robbery
and similar crimes; the unit’s most popular nicknames
were "the Sweeney" (Cockney rhyming slang for
"Sweeney Todd"/"Flying Squad") and
"The Heavy Mob". The name reflects the fact
that the officers operate across the boundaries of London's
police divisions. A number of scandals involving bribery
and corruption were revealed by a internal investigation,
and subsequently the squad was renamed and re-tasked.
In the mid 1970’s a man named Jack Regan played
a character John Thaw. The character was a hard-edged
and not-so-clean detective in the Flying Squad; the show
was named “The Sweeny”.
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