With worsening traffic, The solution was to station police officers in white gloves and white armlets at key points to control the traffic.
Up until the mid-1800’s, the traffic in Birmingham consisted of horses and horse drawn vehicles which travelled at more or less the same speed, making things easily controllable. Runaway horses and carts and absent-minded pedestrians were the only cause of deaths on the roads.
The combination of fast-growing industry and new housing and the ever-growing different types of vehicles traveling at different speeds, put an enormous amount of stress on an already chaotic traffic system in the 1900’s
The solution was to station police officers in white gloves and white armlets at key points to control the traffic. This was known as point duty. There were many complaints from the public saying that they couldn’t see the policeman on duty so the force introduced waterproof, long bright white coats, capes, and shorter, more lightweight white jackets for the summer.
White helmets with the standard badge and rose fitting on the top were introduced later. This made them much more visible and the white coats could be seen from 60-80 yards away. Not a very practical colour for wearing on the polluted streets, but very effective in being seen. Police officers continued to wear white armlets after the white tunics were phased out.