The Marine Policing Unit (MPU) is one of the most fascinating corners of London’s law enforcement history. While Robert Peel’s "bobbies" took to the streets in 1829, London’s river police were already decades into the job. In fact, they are recognised as the oldest continuously serving police force in the world.
Today, they are the waterborne arm of the Met, swapping heavy boots for lifejackets and pavement beats for 47 miles of the River Thames.
The Shocking Origin: The Marine Police Office (1798)
In the late 18th century, London's docks were absolute chaos. The Port of London was the busiest in the world, and an estimated £500,000 worth of imported cargo, which was a staggering sum at the time, was being stolen every year by organised river pirates and corrupt dockworkers.
To combat this, a Scottish magistrate named Patrick Colquhoun and an Essex master mariner named John Harriott teamed up. Financed largely by the West India Committee, who were desperate to protect their sugar, rum, and tobacco trade, they established the Marine Police Force in July 1798.
They set up their headquarters at Wapping Old Stairs on the north bank of the Thames.
A Dangerous Start: The new force was incredibly effective, so effective that angry dockworkers, furious at losing their "perks" (stolen goods), rioted and attacked the Wapping headquarters in October 1798. A rioter and a police officer named Gabriel Franks were killed. Franks is remembered today as the first British police officer ever killed in the line of duty.
The government saw how quickly the force cleaned up the river, took it over in 1800, and renamed it the Thames River Police.
Merging into the Met: "Thames Division" (1839)
When Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police in 1829, he actually modelled his concept of "preventative policing" directly on what Colquhoun had proven worked on the water.
Ten years later, in 1839, the Thames River Police were officially absorbed into the Metropolitan Police, becoming Thames Division (later renamed the Marine Support Unit in 2001, and finally the Marine Policing Unit in 2008).
Despite joining the larger force, they kept their original home. Remarkably, the MPU is still based on that exact same site in Wapping today, making Wapping Police Station the oldest operational police site in the country.
Rowboats to Steam: "Beating" the Oars
For the first century of their existence, river police officers literally "walked the beat" by rowing open galleys.
The Oar Beat: Crews of three (a supervising Surveyor and two Watermen) rowed gruelling six-hour shifts in all weather conditions, navigating the treacherous currents of the tidal Thames.
The Turning Point (1878): On September 3, 1878, a massive crowded pleasure steamer called the Princess Alice collided with a coal collier at Gallions Reach. Over 600 people drowned. The rowboats of the Thames Division simply couldn't row fast enough against the tide to rescue survivors in time.
The Steam Era: The disaster forced a technological leap. The force commissioned its first steam launches, and by 1910, the entire fleet was fully motorised.
The Marine Policing Unit Today
The modern Marine Policing Unit looks very different from the men rowing wooden boats in top hats, but their core mission remains the same.
The Patch: They are responsible for policing 47 miles of the tidal Thames, from Hampton Court in the west down to Dartford Creek in the east. They also respond to incidents across 250 miles of London's landlocked waterways, including canals, reservoirs, and park lakes.
The Fleet: They operate a high-tech fleet of vessels, notably heavy-duty Targa fast-patrol boats and rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) used for counter-terrorism and high-speed interception.
The Specialist Teams: The MPU includes the Underwater and Confined Space Search Team (the Met’s police divers), who conduct searches in zero-visibility conditions for evidence, weapons, or missing persons. They also have dedicated Marine Intelligence teams tracking smuggling, drug importation, and maritime security threats.
The Shift in Rescue: For over 200 years, the river police were the primary search-and-rescue service on the Thames. However, following the tragic Marchioness disaster in 1889, a formal inquiry eventually led to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) setting up dedicated lifeboat stations on the Thames in 2002. Today, the MPU works hand-in-hand with the RNLI, the London Fire Brigade, and the Port of London Authority.
If you ever walk past the historic Wapping High Street, the old police station building still stands, and out back on the river, you can still see the modern MPU boats moored to the jetty, ready to respond to the river at a moment's notice.
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