The Thames River Police, Forefathers of Modern Policing
The Thames River Police were founded in 1798 by the West India Committee to protect the West Indian trade passing through the Port of London. Based on a model of preventative policing, they predate the Metropolitan Police by 21 years and are recognised by UNESCO as the longest continuously serving police force in the world, existing today as the Met’s Marine Policing Unit. This year-long project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has explored the rich and varied history of the forerunner of the Metropolitan Police.
Founded by the West India Committee in partnership with Scottish magistrate Patrick Colquhoun, merchant-adventurer John Harriott and the Government of the day, the Thames River Police are recognised by UNESCO as the oldest continuously serving police force in the world. Originally called the Marine Police, they were created with the aim of preventing theft from ships carrying valuable goods from the West Indies, which were moored in the Port of London on the River Thames. They were revolutionary for the time as they aimed to prevent crime as opposed to merely reacting to it when it occurred, and they employed men drawn from the community that worked on the river to achieve this aim. They quickly proved their worth and were adopted by the state in 1800 in order to protect all vessels on the Thames. From this point on, they were known as the Thames River Police and continued to demonstrate the effectiveness of preventative policing techniques, of which they were pioneers, both on the water and on land, such as in the case of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811.
Eventually, the Metropolitan Police were founded in 1829 on the same ideas of preventative, community policing that the Thames River Police had proven to be effective. For this reason, the Thames River Police are considered to be the forerunners of the Metropolitan Police. Although they continued as a separate force for ten years after the creation of the Metropolitan Police, they were eventually absorbed into the later force as a distinct unit, Thames Division. Despite these changes, they continued to protect people and property on the river, through such events as the Princess Alice disaster of 1878, the World Wars and the Marchioness disaster of 1989. Today they are known as the Marine Policing Unit and continue their historic mission from the same site in Wapping where they have been based since 1798.
Please visit the Topics page for an E-book on the Thames River Police’s remarkable history over the last two centuries. There is also a brief history of the Thames Police, a timeline and a list of resources for further reading. We also have a wide array of images over that period in our Gallery, as well as a virtual exhibition that shows the Thames River Police exhibition displayed at the Museum of London Docklands between October 2017 and January 2018.
In the Archive you can find the minutes of the West India Committee concerning the creation of the original Marine Police Institution and the problems facing the river, Patrick Colquhoun’s Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames and some newspaper and magazine articles concerning the Thames Police.
In the Gallery you can find images from across the whole history of the Thames River Police, including some kindly provided by our partner organisations.
In Downloads you can find a downloadable version of the Thames Police e-book as well as educational posters and a heritage trail.
The project has resulted not only in this website, the e-book and documentary film, but also community engagement programmes with the Tower Hamlets Volunteer Police Cadets and the Prince’s Trust and an exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands from 13th October 2017 to 14th January 2018.
Volunteer Police Cadets – heritage workshop
Our first, two-day, programme involved a group from the Tower Hamlets Volunteer Police Cadets. The first day was spent at the Museum of London Docklands where the cadets took part in a workshop on heritage, led by the West India Committee’s resident Research Fellow. This involved learning about what heritage is, why it is important and what skills it involves, as well as how we approach the past, learn about it and then present it to people in an appropriate way. They then put these skills into practice around the Museum, looking at how information is presented. The afternoon was spent at the Thames Police Museum at Wapping Police Station, learning about the history of the Thames River Police from the Curator. The Volunteer Police Cadets also had an opportunity to talk to a serving Marine Policing Unit Officer, to learn about their work today.
The second day was spent at the Prince’s Trust centre in Poplar where the Cadets used the skills and knowledge they had learned the previous day to design the educational posters available in the Downloads section.
PC Steve Austin
“I was surprised by how much the Cadets and I learned from the experience. I really enjoyed the training on how to handle heritage items. The Cadets gave up their free time to take part in this programme and I know they got a great deal out of it.”
Cadet Uno Baker
“I don’t know what I expected from the event but I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see our work on display at the museum.”
Cadet Fareha Miah
“The visits to the museums were really enjoyable and helped us when it came to producing the posters. I wasn’t aware of how much the West India Committee was involved in the founding of the police.”
The Prince’s Trust – heritage internship
Our second, four-day, programme was with Heritage Interns, who were recruited after being interviewed at one of the Prince’s Trust’s ‘Get Hired’ events at London City Hall. The first day consisted of a heritage workshop and visits to the Museum of London Docklands and the Thames Police Museum, like those experienced by the Volunteer Police Cadets. The second day was spent at the West India Committee, learning about the history of the Committee and looking at how to approach documents and artefacts, using examples from the West India Committee’s UNESCO Memory of the World inscribed collections. The next day was spent on a walking tour around London, visiting the key sites in Thames Police history. The Interns recorded the information they discovered about the sites, along with other useful information, such as nearby travel links. The final day was spent at the Prince’s Trust Centre in Poplar designing the heritage trail leaflet, using the skills and knowledge learned during the programme. This leaflet is also available in the Downloads section.
Interns from The Prince’s Trust discuss what they learnt during the West India Committee internship:
Interns from The Prince’s Trust discuss their favourite part of the West India Committee internship:
Inside Time magazine – prisoner engagement
During the project we have also been working with Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners, and have written a series of articles on the history of the Thames River Police, released in monthly installments, available through the links below.
We would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Metropolitan Police, the Marine Policing Unit, the Volunteer Police Cadets, the Prince’s Trust, Inside Time and the Thames Police Association for their help and support in making this project possible.