Editing Police (section)

====London====
[[File:Patrick Colquhoun.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Patrick Colquhoun]], founder of the [[Thames River Police]]]]
In 1797, [[Patrick Colquhoun]] was able to persuade the [[West Indies]] merchants who operated at the [[Pool of London]] on the [[River Thames]] to establish a police force at the docks to prevent rampant theft that was causing annual estimated losses of £500,000 worth of cargo in imports alone.<ref name="paterson">Dick Paterson, [http://www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk/h_police_1.html Origins of the Thames Police] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006164158/http://www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk/h_police_1.html |date=6 October 2017 }}, ''Thames Police Museum''. Retrieved 4 February 2007.</ref> The idea of a police, as it then existed in [[France]], was considered as a potentially undesirable foreign import. In building the case for the police in the face of England's firm anti-police sentiment, Colquhoun framed the political rationale on economic indicators 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" in his estimation.<ref name="critchley">T.A. Critchley, ''A History of Police in England and Wales'', 2nd ed. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 38–39.</ref>
[[File:No Police!! Well Done Aberystwyth Boys 1850.jpg|thumb|left|Poster against "detested" Police posted in the town of [[Aberystwyth]], [[Wales]], April 1850]]

With the initial investment of £4,200, the new force the [[Thames River Police#Marine Police|Marine Police]] 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 force was part funded by the [[London Society of West India Planters and Merchants]]. The 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". Word of this success spread quickly, and the government passed the [[Depredations on the Thames Act 1800]] on 28 July 1800, establishing a fully funded police force the [[Thames River Police]] together with new laws including police powers; now the oldest police force in the world. Colquhoun published a book on the experiment, ''The Commerce and Policing of the River Thames''. It found receptive audiences far outside London, and inspired similar forces in other cities, notably, [[New York City]], [[Dublin]], and [[Sydney]].<ref name="paterson" />

Colquhoun's utilitarian approach to the problem – using a [[cost-benefit analysis|cost-benefit]] argument to obtain support from businesses standing to benefit – allowed him to achieve what [[Henry Fielding|Henry]] and [[John Fielding]] failed for their Bow Street detectives. Unlike the stipendiary system at Bow Street, the river police were full-time, salaried officers prohibited from taking private fees.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-36618/police "Police: The formation of the English Police"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621060103/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-36618/police |date=21 June 2008 }}, Britannica.com, 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2007.</ref> His other contribution was the concept of [[preventive policing]]; his police were to act as a highly visible deterrent to crime by their permanent presence on the Thames.<ref name="critchley" />