Marine Police Force
| Marine Police Force | |
|---|---|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1798 |
| Dissolved | 1839 |
| Superseding agency | Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit |
| Employees | 50 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Legal jurisdiction | River Thames, London, England |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
The Marine Police Force, sometimes known as the Thames River Police, claimed to be England's oldest police force and was formed by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun and Master Mariner John Harriott in 1798 to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and in the lower reaches and docks of the Thames. Pre-dating the Metropolitan Police, it merged in 1839 with that nascent force instigated by Robert Peel. Its base was (and remains) in Wapping High Street. It has gradually evolved into the Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit.
Where a 'police force' extends beyond organised constables of a single borough or City Corporation this constitutes the oldest force in England. Merchants were losing an estimated £500,000 (equivalent to £46,700,323 in 2015) of stolen cargo annually from the Pool of London on the River Thames by the late 1790s. A plan was devised to curb the problem in 1797 by an Essex Justice of the Peace and master mariner, John Harriot, who joined forces with Patrick Colquhoun and utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. 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, the new force began with about 50 men charged with policing 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.
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