The Thames River Police was formed in 1800 to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the

Pool of London The Pool of London is a stretch of the River Thames from London Bridge to below Limehouse. Part of the Tideway of the Thames, the Pool was navigable by tall-masted vessels bringing coastal and later overseas goods—the wharves there were the ...

and in the lower reaches and docks of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. It replaced the Marine Police, a police force established in 1798 by magistrate

Patrick Colquhoun Patrick Colquhoun ( ; 14 March 1745 – 25 April 1820) was a Scotland, Scottish merchant, statistician, magistrate, and founder of the first regular preventive police force in England, the Thames River Police. He also served as Lord Provost of ...

and justice of the peace John Harriott that had been part funded by the

West India Committee The West India Committee is a British-based organisation promoting ties and trade with the British Caribbean. It operates as a charity and NGO (non-governmental organisation). It evolved out of a lobbying group formed in 1780 to represent the inter ...

to protect trade between the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It is claimed that the Marine Police was England's first ever police force. The Thames River Police merged with the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

in 1839 with that nascent force instigated by

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

. Its base was (and remains) in Wapping High Street. It has gradually evolved into the

Marine Policing Unit The Marine Policing Unit (MPU) is the waterborne policing unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service, forming part of the Met Taskforce (MO7) within Met Operations. Its 22 vessels are responsible for waterborne policing of the River Thames in ...

Marine Police

Where a 'police force' extends beyond organised constables of a single borough or city corporation this constitutes the oldest force in England.Marine Police History
accessed 12 January 2014 Merchants were losing an estimated £500,000 (equivalent to £ in ) of stolen cargo annually from the

on the River Thames by the late 1790s.Dick Paterson, Origins of the Thames Police (Thames Police Museum)
accessed 4 February 2007 A plan was devised to curb the problem in 1797 by an

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and master mariner, John Harriot, who joined forces with Patrick Colquhoun and

utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...

philosopher,

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...

. Armed with Harriot's proposal and Bentham's insights, Colquhoun was able to persuade the West India planters committees and the West India merchants to fund the new force. They agreed to a one-year trial and on 2 July 1798, after receiving government permission, the Thames River Police began operating with Colquhoun as superintending magistrate and Harriot the resident magistrate. With the initial investment of £4,200, they took a lease of premises on the current site of Wapping Police Station and appointed a ''Superintendent of Ship Constables'' with five ''surveyors'' to patrol the river, day and night. These surveyors were rowed in open galleys by ''police watermen''. They also had four surveyors visiting ships being loaded and unloaded, with ''ship constables'' (who were appointed and controlled by the Marine Police Force but paid for by ship owners) supervising gangs of dockers. A ''Surveyor of Quays'' with two assistants and thirty ''police quay guards'' watched over cargoes on shore. The force policed 33,000 workers in the river trades, of whom Colquhoun claimed 11,000 were known criminals and "on the game". The river police first received a hostile reception by those dockyard and wharf workers not wishing to lose an illicit income. A mob of 2,000 attempted to burn down the police office with the police inside. The skirmish that followed resulted in the first line of duty death for the new force with the killing of Gabriel Franks. Nevertheless, Colquhoun reported to his backers that his force was a success after its first year, and his men had "established their worth by saving £122,000 worth of cargo and by the rescuing of several lives."

Thames River Police

Word of the success of the Marine Police spread quickly. Colquhoun published a book on the Marine Police, ''Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames'' recommending a legislated fully government funded police force. The government passed the

Depredations on the Thames Act 1800 The Act 39 & 40 Geo 3 c 87, sometimes called the Thames Police Act 1800, the Thames River Police Act 1800, the Marine Police Act or the Depredations on the Thames Act 1800, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, granted royal assent on 2 ...

on 28 July 1800 establishing the Thames River Police together with new laws including police powers. The force was responsible for offences committed on the River Thames, and in its vicinity, within the counties of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and the

City and Liberty of Westminster The City and Liberty of Westminster was a unit of local government in the county of Middlesex, England. It was located immediately to the west of the City of London. Originally under the control of Westminster Abbey, the local authority for the ...

and

Liberties of the Tower of London The Liberties of the Tower, or the Tower Liberty is a small neighbourhood in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, which includes both Tower Hill and the Tower of London. The area was defined sometime after 1200 to provide an open are ...

. By 1829, the force had expanded to occupy three stations at Wapping, Waterloo, and Blackwall. In 1839, the Thames River Police amalgamated with the

forming the Thames Division.

Legacy

Historians of policing credit Colquhoun's innovation as a critical development leading up to

's "new" police three decades later. Along with the

Bow Street Runners The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1 ...

, the Thames River Police was eventually absorbed by the Metropolitan Police in the 19th century. Colquhoun's utilitarian approach to the problem – using a cost-benefit analysis to obtain support from businesses standing to benefit – allowed him to achieve what

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

and

John Fielding Sir John Fielding (16 September 1721 – 4 September 1780) was a notable English magistrate and social reformer of the 18th century. He was also the younger half-brother of novelist, playwright and chief magistrate Henry Fielding. Despite bein ...

failed for their Bow Street detectives. Unlike the stipendiary system at Bow Street, the river police were full-time, salaried officers prohibited from taking fees. The idea of a salaried police as it existed in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

was considered an affront to the English ruling class who favoured ad hoc justice, particularly during this century of economic change. Britain was industrialising and expanding its

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

. Cautious of being seen as autocratic, many politicians felt the existing often sporadic local justice system with severe penalties should not be nationalised. Colquhoun made an economic rather than political case to show that a police dedicated to crime prevention was "perfectly congenial to the principle of the British constitution". Moreover, he went so far as to praise the French system, which had reached "the greatest degree of perfection".T. A. Critchley, ''A History of Police in England and Wales'', 2nd edition. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 38-39. As impressive as Colquhoun's ability to sell the idea of a publicly funded police force was, his main contribution is recognized as the introduction of crime prevention, or

preventive policing Preventive police is that aspect of law enforcement intended to act as a deterrent to the commission of crime. Preventive policing is considered a defining characteristic of the modern police, typically associated with Robert Peel's London Metropol ...

, as a fundamental principle to the English police system. His police were to be a deterrent to crime by their permanent presence on the Thames. He arrived at this conclusion by viewing crime fighting as a science, and in utilitarian fashion, attempted to press that science into the service of the national economy. He published two dozen treatises on a variety of social problems, but the most significant is his 1797 ''A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis''. The Metropolitan Police Service commemorated the founders with police vessel names including the supervision launches ''John Harriott'' (1947-1963) and ''Patrick Colquhoun'' (1963-2003), and Targa duty boats in use, the ''John Harriott'' and the ''Gabriel Franks''.Thames Police Museu
Photo Gallery
an

Retrieved 7 February 2007.

References

External links

*
Official website

{{UK private and military police forces Police forces of London History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Defunct Metropolitan Police units History of the River Thames Port of London Defunct port police forces of the United Kingdom