The Act 39 & 40 Geo. 3. c. 87,[1] sometimes called the Thames Police Act 1800,[2] the Thames River Police Act 1800,[3] the Marine Police Act[4] or the Depredations on the Thames Act 1800,[5] was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, granted royal assent on 28 July 1800.[6] As alluded to in its long title, it amended the Thefts upon the Thames Act 1762.
Established two years earlier, the Marine Police Force was initially run and funded by the West Indies merchants whose cargoes in the Pool of London it was principally intended to protect. The Act converted it to a publicly-run and publicly funded body, increased its establishment to 88 men and set out regulations for how they were now to operate under the Home Secretary's direct supervision, thus laying the groundwork for the Force's absorption into the Metropolitan Police in 1839.[7]
The Act was amended and renewed by the Depredations on the Thames Act 1807 (47 Geo. 3 Sess. 1. c. 37),[8] the Depredations on the Thames Act 1814 (54 Geo. 3. c. 187),[9] the Police Magistrates Metropolitan Act 1822 (1 Geo. 4. c. 66),[10] the Police Magistrates, Metropolis Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 19)[11] and finally the Justices of the Peace in Metropolis Act 1837 (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 37).[12] The Marine Police were finally absorbed into the Metropolitan Police via the Metropolitan Police Act 1839.
References
- ^ This Act has never had a short title
- ^ Bruce P Smith, "The Emergence of Public Prosecution in London" (2006) 18 Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 29 at 55; Timothy Brain, "The New Police 1829" (2016) Enlightenment and Dissent, No 31, p 1 at p 46. "Thames Police Act": Report from Select Committee on Metropolis Police Officers, 1838, p 25.
- ^ Jurkiewicz (ed), Global Corruption and Ethics Management, 2020, p 278. "Thames River Police Act": Schofield (ed), The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, 1993, p 174; Radzinowicz, History of English Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750, 1948, vol 2, p 389
- ^ Watson, Medicine and Justice, 2020 PT241
- ^ Current Law Statutes 1997, vol 3, p 47; Cornish, Banks, Mitchell, Mitchell and Probert, Law and Society in England 1750-1950, 2nd Ed, p xlii.
- ^ "The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain..., Volume 20, pages 494 to 505". 1811.
- ^ "Thames Police Museum - History".
- ^ "The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21, page 78 to 84". 1809.
- ^ "The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1814, p 955 to 971". 1814.
- ^ "The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 26, pages 766 to 778". 1822.
- ^ The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 13, p 37-50. ISBN 9781010593096.
- ^ "The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 14, p 548". 1838.