Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843. Prior to this, the Police Commissioners maintained a 'police' force of Sergeants and Watchmen, uniformed in hats, belts, great coats and policemen's clothes, under the Sheffield Police Act that provided for Cleansing, Lighting, Watching and Improving the Town of Sheffield. They maintained a day police but their powers were not derived from the Police Act but from their appointment as Special Constables. The Municipal Corporation Act provided for the election of a Town Council who appointed a Watch Committee to whom was given extensive powers including the making of bye-laws necessary for the preservation of good order. The Watch Committee under the Police Commissioners was replaced in November 1843 by the new Watch Committee appointed by the Town Council under the new Municipal Corporation Act. They had the power to appoint Constables and, after their appointment, notice was to be given to the Mayor to the existing body, specifying a day when the existing force was to surrender its powers to the new one. That notice was to be published on the doors of the Town Hall and all of the Churches of the borough and on that day specified, the powers

Under the Municipal Corporation Act, so soon as the proper regulations could be made, the notice would be served, and from the time it appointed, the powers of the Police Commissioner's Watch Committee would cease. On 24 November, the new Watch Committee appointed Mr Thomas Raynor and 62 other fit persons (being the old police force) to act as constables with Mr Raynor to act as Chief Constable, Daniel Astwood and Thomas Mathews to act as Inspectors, and William Blackburn, George Revill, Thomas Wakefield and Richard Potton to act as Sergeants, until the appointed day upon which the new Borough Police Force would take over. This avoided putting the Corporation to some expense to discharge duties which the present force was competent to discharge.

On 10 February 1844, the Town Council fixed 4 April for the new Sheffield Police to commence under the control of the Watch Committee. The Borough Constables were appointed by the Watch Committee on 2 April 1844. On 13 March 1844, the Town Council adopted the report of the Watch Committee which included the plan of the district to be watched and the report of Mr Raynor of the required numbers of day and night force and the rules and regulations necessary for the Police Force. A night police force of 47 watchmen with eight superior officers and 16 day police with four superior officers was established as the new Sheffield Police. The cost of the force for the half year was £1761 2s. Mr Raynor was made Superintendent and held that position until January 1859 when John Jackson was appointed Head Constable.

Although a proposal had been made for a reduction of the police force shortly after the establishment of the new Borough Force, it was decided by the Watch Committee it was impracticable to do so. In fact, by June 1844, a further proposal called for an increase to the Sheffield Police. At that same time, it was recognised there had been several occasions, when the police were called upon to execute warrants, where they were opposed by large numbers of people armed with long sticks and other more formidable weapons, against which the short staves of the Sheffield Police proved utterly inadequate. It was resolved to purchase 12 to 18 of the short, cheap swords, made for the use of the City of London Police, costing, including the belts, 14s. 6d. for the occasional use of the Sheffield Police, when Mr Raynor might think it needful.

An uproar in Westbar Green, Sheffield, on Saturday 21 July 1855 resulted in the first death of a policeman while on duty with the Sheffield Police. The police, six in number, were attacked with sticks and stones, by a ferocious mob, by accounts of the time amounting to at least 1,000 persons collected, on their attempting to take two of the instigators of the riot into custody. One of the officers, Dickinson, was found after the riot, terribly beaten and lying unconscious in Paradise Square and was taken to the infirmary. Constable William Beardshaw received a severe stroke on the head from a stone. He finished his duty at six o'clock on Sunday morning, went about all Sunday, apparently not much the worse, starting his shift again at nine o'clock in the evening. By later in the evening he was obliged to go home and died the next morning. The night of the riot was the first time in his life William Beardshaw, 26 years of age, had gone on duty.

Police Constable Samuel Pidd Gibson, 33 years of age, was the second member of the Sheffield Police to die due to injuries sustained while on duty. Constable Gibson was fatally wounded in a street row on Christmas Day and died 23 February 1872.

On the night of the 25th December, Constable Gibson was on duty with Constable John Pearson in Westbar. At about eleven o'clock, a complaint was made to them that a man was assaulting persons in Spring Street with a whip. They went to the place and saw a man strike three or four persons with a whip and they took him into custody. He resisted, and a great crowd that collected immediately rescued him and attacked the two Constables, Gibson being struck in the head with a blunt instrument, fracturing his skull. Constable Pearson had to go off duty but Constable Gibson, although very much injured, continued on duty through the night. He subsequently was compelled to go off duty two days afterwards and never returned to duty. Constable Gibson had been in the Sheffield Police for about six years.

Other Inspectors have often expressed themselves in equally strong terms.

What is locally known as "the flood" - paused by the bursting of one of the huge reservoirs which supply Sheffield with water - brought Mr. Jackson very prominently before the town, and added much to his increasing reputation. This terrible accident occurred shortly after midnight on March 12th, 1864, and resulted in the loss of 250 lives and the destruction of an immense quantity of property. The first intimation of the accident in Sheffield, for the reservoir was on the edge of the moors several miles distant, was the sudden overflowing of the river which runs through the lower part of the town. Mr. Jackson was then in bed; but an intimation was speedily conveyed to him by one of his men. Hurrying into the town he had his horse saddled, and spent the remainder of the night riding about the flooded streets in the attempt - and in many cases it was successful - to save life. Often the water was up to his knees as he sat in his saddle; it was, moreover, rushing through the streets with something of the force of a mountain torrent; and many times he was in imminent danger of being drowned - a fate which indeed befell a man who persisted in following him on horseback. But Mr. Jackson thought not of the risk he ran. It was his duty to be where he was; and all through that dreadful night he rode through the rushing water, giving instructions to his men, calming the fears of those who were on the point of jumping from their bedroom windows to meet what would have been certain death, and inspiring them with the hope that the flood would soon subside. The work which this catastrophe threw upon the Chief Constable was enormous, but it was splendidly done, and both he and the Force were warmly complimented and congratulated. In some instances whole families were saved by their exertions. For his services on the night of the accident, and for the great and successful exertions he made to prevent an outbreak of fever by promptly clearing the roads and sewers of the mud and debris which the water had brought down, the Watch Committee passed him a special vote of thanks, and awarded him a gratuity of £50.

Valuable as was the work which Mr. Jackson did at this time, it was exceeded by the important part he subsequently played during the sitting in Sheffield of the Trades Outrage Commission. The success which attended that Commission was indeed largely due to him. Sheffield had long borne an evil reputation for trade outrages - rattening, blowing up, maiming, and even murder. It was seldom that the perpetrators could be discovered and a conviction obtained; for the outrages were invariably committed at night and under circumstances of profound secrecy. Moreover, the trade unions always protested their innocence; and some even went the length of offering rewards for the discovery of the perpetrators. The origin of the Commission was the blowing up of the house of a man, named Fearnehough, a saw-grinder. This outrage aroused a strong feeling in Sheffield, following as it did a long series of other outrages in the saw trade, but few of which had been brought home to the guilty parties. It was felt that some exceptional measures were necessary to probe this system of terrorism to the bottom; and thus it was that the Commission was armed with the power of granting a certificate of indemnity to any person who confessed to having committed a trade outrage and the circumstances under which it was committed, no matter whether it was a murder or the comparatively slight offence of "rattening." Notwithstanding this there was great reluctance on the part of witnesses to confess to serious crimes; and there seemed a prospect of the Commission having to close its sittings without bringing to light much more than was already known. Mr. Jackson took a prominent part in the preparation of the evidence laid before the Commissioners, and in this way he was brought into close contact with men who proved to be the most important of the witnesses.

Amongst them was a saw-grinder, named James Hallam, who had been mixed up with several outrages planned by the notorious Broadhead, secretary of the Saw-grinders' Union. As the result of spending a whole night with Hallam, Mr. Jackson succeeded in obtaining from him a full confession of his crimes, and a promise that when he was called as a witness he would divulge all he knew to the Commissioners. But when the time came for his evidence to be taken his courage failed. He prevaricated, refused to answer questions, and declared that his confession to the Chief Constable was only made with the intention of misleading him. The Chief Commissioner (the late Mr. William Overend, Q.C.) thereupon committed him to Wakefield Prison for six weeks for contempt of Court. But Mr. Jackson did not send him to Wakefield. He kept him in one of the cells at the Police station for a week and then presented him to the Commissioners. The scene was a memorable one. Hallam was no longer defiant. Pale and haggard, he trembled in every limb, and had almost literally to be supported by the Chief Constable. During the giving of his evidence he fainted. The confession he made was of a startling character. He admitted to having taken part in the murder of a man named Linley, for which he received £7 10s.; to having waylaid a surgical instrument grinder named Sutcliffe, and knocked him on the head with a life-preserver; and to his having been invited by Broadhead to blow up Fearnehough's house. This he undertook to do; but the deed was postponed for some purpose or other, and when it was actually done he had no hand in it. This confession was the turning point in the history of the Commission. Witness after witness then came forward to confess the crimes they had committed, amongst them Broadhead himself, who admitted having instigated the murder of Lindley and a number of outrages. From this time it was all plain sailing with the Commissioners and thus they happily succeeded in unveiling and exposing the whole network of secret terrorism and crime which had for years been associated with several of Sheffield's staple industries. It is safe to say but for Mr. Jackson this would not have been the case. In closing the sittings of the Commission, the Chief Commissioner spoke in high terms of Mr. Jackson and of the great service he had rendered. "We think," said the Chief Commissioner, "he is an officer of the utmost value, and that not only Sheffield has cause to be proud of such an officer, but without such an officer a town subject to such lawless conduct as this would be in considerable jeopardy." And in their formal report to the Trades Union Commissioners, the members of the Commission say:

Shortly after the termination of these proceedings, the Watch Committee voted Mr, Jackson the sum of one hundred guineas "as an acknowledgment of the great services he rendered in connection with the recent Trades Outrage Inquiry." But this acknowledgment was felt by the town to be altogether inadequate; and at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce it was suggested that a public subscription should be opened. The suggestion was warmly and almost eagerly taken up, and in a short time about £700 was raised. The subscription list was headed by Earl Fitz-William, then Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding, and by the Earl of Wharncliffe; and amongst the subscribers were all the leading manufacturers, merchants, and residents. The testimonial, which consisted of a cheque for £600, a silver salver, valued at £80, and an illuminated list of the subscribers, was presented by the President of the Chamber of Commerce, in the presence of the Mayor, the Master Cutler, and a large and representative gathering of merchants, manufacturers, and other prominent townsmen.

Mr. Jackson has had many opportunities of showing how admirable are his powers of organisation. One of these was when Sheffield was visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales, in the summer of 1875, to open a public park. So excellent were his arrangements then that he was warmly complimented by their Royal Highnesses; and not long afterwards the Corporation expressed appreciation of his services by largely increasing his salary. Testimony to the efficiency of the arrangements which he made on other Royal visits was also borne by the late Prince Leopold and also by the late Duke of Clarence. John Jackson was the Chief Constable of Oldham from 1849 to 1858 and Sheffield from 1859 to 1898, where he died in office.

With the granting of city status, the Sheffield Police became the Sheffield City Police in 1893. On 1 June 1967, Sheffield City Police became part of Sheffield and Rotherham Constabulary.