Editing River Thames (section)

===Police and lifeboats===
[[File:2023-06-18 NINA MACKAY III - MMSI 232043472.jpg|thumb|Metropolitan Marine Policing Unit patrol vessel, ''Nina Mackay III'', on the Thames River in London]]
The river is policed by five police forces. The [[Marine Support Unit|Thames Division]] is the River Police arm of London's [[Metropolitan Police]], while [[Surrey Police]], [[Thames Valley Police]], [[Essex Police]] and [[Kent Police]] have responsibilities on their parts of the river outside the metropolitan area. There is also a [[London Fire Brigade]] fire boat on the river. The river claims a number of lives each year.<ref>BBC News, 24 July 2014 {{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28456639 |title=Deaths in the River Thames reached 15 last year |work=BBC News online |language=en-GB |access-date=23 January 2019 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085624/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28456639 |url-status=live}}.</ref>

As a result of the [[Marchioness disaster]] in 1989 when 51 people died, the [[UK government|Government]] asked the [[Maritime and Coastguard Agency]], the [[Port of London Authority]] and the [[Royal National Lifeboat Institution]] (RNLI) to work together to set up a dedicated Search and Rescue service for the tidal River Thames. As a result, there are four [[lifeboat station]]s on the River Thames: at [[Teddington Lifeboat Station|Teddington]], [[Chiswick Lifeboat Station|Chiswick]], [[Tower Lifeboat Station|Tower]] (based at [[Victoria Embankment]]/[[Waterloo Bridge]]) and [[Gravesend Lifeboat Station|Gravesend]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1739401.stm |work=BBC News |date=2 January 2002 |title=Thames lifeboat service launched |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=26 May 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040526015753/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1739401.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>