Brighton Borough Police was the police force responsible for policing

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

for 129 years from 1838 to 1967, though there were special arrangements in place during the Second World War. It is believed that a police force of sorts was in place in the town by at least 1830 though this largely based on earlier 'watchmen' system of policing. In 1838 the town created its first fully professional police force. At this time the force consisted of a Chief Constable, two Superintendents, a night Constable, three Inspectors and twenty-four Constables. In 1854 Brighton was incorporated as a

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

. In 1854 the force had ten Officers and fifty-one Constables and came under the control of the

watch committee In England and Wales, watch committees were the local government bodies which oversaw policing from 1835 until, in some areas, 1968. Establishment The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 required each borough to establish a "watch committee" and to ...

of the newly formed Brighton Borough Council. Under the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

Brighton became a

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

. By 1902 the force consisted of 102 police officers, policing a population of 123,478. Between 1943 and 1947, in order to provide a co-ordinated approach to the wartime emergency, Brighton Borough Police was amalgamated with other local forces to form the Sussex Combined Police, with headquarters at Haywards Heath. The combined force was abolished in April 1947, and Brighton Borough Police once again was in place to police the county borough of Brighton. At this time the force consisted of 227 police officers. Brighton Borough Police was abolished on 1 January 1968, under the

Police Act 1964 The Police Act 1964 (1964 c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that updated the legislation governing police forces in England and Wales, constituted new police authorities, gave the Home Secretary new powers to supervise lo ...

, when its officers became part of newly formed Sussex Constabulary, which later changed its name to

Sussex Police Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing in the whole of Sussex. Its jurisdiction covers the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. The force is headquartered in Malling House, Lewes, East Sussex. His ...

. This force continues to police Brighton to the present day.

References

{{UK-law-enforcement-agency-stub Organisations based in Brighton and Hove Defunct police forces of England

See also

References