Water police

Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organization, who patrol in water craft. Their patrol areas may be coastal sea waters, rivers, estuaries, harbors, lakes, canals or a combination of these.

Duties and functions

Water police are usually responsible for ensuring the safety of water users, enforcing laws relating to water traffic, preventing crime on vessels, banks and shores, providing search and rescue services (either as the main provider or as an initial response unit before more specialized units arrive), and allowing the police to reach locations not easily accessible from land. They may also be responsible for coastal security, environmental law enforcement, immigration and smuggling patrols, and diving search operations (although many police organizations have separate units to handle this). Their operations may coordinate with other agencies with similar assets such as in the United States the various Federal, State or Local authorities may work together to promote or achieve similar enforcement or rescue outcomes. In the United States, a number of states have combined the duties of water police with those of conservation officers.
Equipment ranges from personal water craft and inflatable boats to large seagoing craft, but most police vessels are small to medium, fast motorboats. In some areas these vessels incorporate a firefighting capability through a fixed deck nozzle. The operators of these vessels are generally trained in many rescue disciplines including first aid, vessel dewatering, and firefighting. They may also be rescue and scuba divers who are specially trained and also boat operators who may engage in towing operations.

List of water police units

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**Australian Federal Police Water Police
** New South Wales Police Marine Area Command
** Northern Territory Police Marine and Fisheries Enforcement Unit
** Queensland Police Water Police
** South Australia Police Water Operations Unit
** Tasmania Police Marine and Rescue Services
** Victoria Police Water Police Squad
** Western Australia Police Water Police Branch
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** Federal Police (Austria) Water Police of Austria (especially Vienna)
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** Royal Bahamas Police Force Harbour Patrol
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**Belgian Federal Police Water Police Branch (DAC)
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** Bermuda Police Marine Unit
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** Barrie Police Service Marine Unit
** Brockville Police Service Marine Patrol Unit
**Durham Regional Police Service Marine Unit
**Halifax Regional Police Lake Patrol
** Hamilton Police Service
** Halton Regional Policebr>
Marine Unit
** London Police Service Marine Patrol Unit
**Montreal City Police Service Nautical Patrol
** Niagara Regional Police Service Marine Unit
** Ontario Provincial Police – regional Marine Units and Underwater Search and Recovery Unit
** Ottawa Police Service Marine/Underwater Unit
** Peel Regional Police Marine Unit
** Regina Police Service Underwater Investigation and Recovery Team
** Royal Canadian Mounted Police West Coast Marine Detachment
** Saskatoon Police Service River Patrol Detail
** Toronto Police Service Marine Unit – formed in 1982 to replace Toronto Harbour Commission Port Police and Harbour Police units.
** Vancouver Police Department Marine Squad
** Victoria Police Department Marine Unit
** Winnipeg Police Service River Patrol and Underwater Search and Recovery Unit
** York Regional Police Service Marine Unit
* Cayman Islands
** Royal Cayman Islands Police Marine Section
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** Helsinki Police Department Boat Unit
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** Maritime Gendarmerie
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** Federal Police units embedded within the Coast Guard
** Water Protection Police units of the following State Police:
*** Baden-Württemberg Police
*** Bavarian State Police
*** Berlin Police
***Brandenburg Police
*** Bremen Police
*** Hamburg Police
*** Hesse State Police
***Lower Saxony Police
*** Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Police
*** North Rhine-Westphalia Police
*** Rhineland-Palatinate Police
*** Saarland Police
***Saxony Police
*** Saxony-Anhalt Police
***Schleswig-Holstein Police
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** Marine Police Unit
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**Gibraltar Services Police Marine Unit – a civil police force which guards and enforces law on UK Ministry of Defence installations in Gibraltar.
** Royal Gibraltar Police Marine Section
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** Hellenic Coast Guard, whose full name is "Harbour Corps-Hellenic Coast Guard," was originally founded in 1919 as the "Harbour Corps" ( el, Λιμενικό Σώμα) to act as Greece's maritime and harbour police. It still performs this role, and it is often referred to as the "Harbour orps (Λιμενικό) in everyday Greek parlance.
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** Hong Kong Police Force Marine Region – The Marine Police patrol of waters within the territory of Hong Kong, including 263 islands. The Marine Region with about 3,000 officers, and a fleet of 143 in total, made up of 71 launches and 72 craft is the largest of any civil police force. Was referred to as ''Water Police'' until 1948 when it was renamed ''Marine Police''.
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**Indonesian National Police – ''Polisi Perairan'' (POLAIR)
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** Kerala Coastal Police, coastal security division of Kerala State Police
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**Garda Síochána Water Unit
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**Israeli Police Marine Police
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**Corps of the Port Captaincies – Coast Guard Maritime police
** Guardia di Finanza Marine Police Section
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** Jamaica Constabulary Force Marine Division
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** Royal Malaysian Police Marine Operations Force
* Marshall Islands
** Kwajalein Police Department Marine Police Section
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** Monaco Police Force Marine Division
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** Dienst Waterpolitie, water police force, a subdivision of the "Landelijke Eenheid" (LE), the nationwide unit.
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**New Zealand Police Maritime Policing Unit
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** National Aeronaval Service
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**Philippine National Police
*** Philippine National Police Maritime Group
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**Polícia Marítima Maritime Police
** Republican National Guard (Portugal) Unidade de Controlo Costeiro (Coast Control Unit)
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** Police of Russia's Water Police
*** Saint Petersburg Police's river police
***Moscow Police's river police
** FSB's Russian Coast Guard
** National Guard Maritime Unit
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** Police of Serbia's River Police
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** Singapore Police Force Police Coast Guard
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** Guardia Civil Guardia Civil del Mar
** Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera (Customs)
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** Sri Lanka Police Service Marine Division
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** South African Police Service Water Wing
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** Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Marine Operations Section
** Dyfed-Powys Police Marine Unit
** Dorset Police Marine Section
**Essex Police Marine and Diving Unit
** Hampshire Constabulary Marine Unit
**Kent Police Marine Unit
** Lothian and Borders Police Marine Section
** Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit (formerly Thames Division)
** Ministry of Defence Police Marine Unit
**Norfolk Constabulary Broads policing unit by boat with support from 'Broads beat' officers on land
** Northumbria Police Marine Unit
** North West Police Underwater Search & Marine Unit
** Strathclyde Police Marine Policing Unit
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** Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Marine Police Division
**Anacortes Police Department

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