lilmod, the Russian police conducted actual spot checks. Here is a translation of a report from Zhitomir, 1851 – it is the Jewish community complaining that the enforcement is too zealous:
“On the streets, district inspectors tear the wigs off Jewish women’s heads, bonnets, and other head attire; they pull them by their hair to the police station and pour a few buckets of cold water on them; they keep them under arrest for 48 hours; and then finally make them sweep the streets in public.”