Colonial Police Service
The Colonial Police Service (CPS) was a British organisation formed in 1936 with the intention of standardising police forces in the United Kingdom's Crown Colonies, Protectorates and Mandatory Palestine. It did not become operationalized, however, until after the end of the Second World War. Itself part of the overall Colonial Service, it acted as an umbrella organisation for existing bodies such as the Palestine Police Force, Royal Gibraltar Police, the Cyprus Military Police, the Federated Malay States Police Force, and the North Borneo Police Force. Its formation came after Sir Warren Fisher and the Fisher Committee created recommendations to reform policing in the British Empire. By 1948, there were 43 total police forces and agencies that fell under its jurisdiction; every police force of the British colonies, protectorates, and territories. In 1951, CPS hosted the first-ever Colonial Police Commissioners' Conference in history. Police chiefs and commissioners from around the world came to London to discuss the postwar environment of policing in the Empire, and especially to discuss the Malayan Emergency and Operation Service.
| Colonial Police Service | |
|---|---|
_(St_Edwards_Crown).svg) | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1936 |
| Dissolved | Gradually from 1954 to 1997 |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction | British Empire and United Kingdom |
| Operational structure | |
| Elected officer responsible | |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | |
The Colonial Police Service (CPS) was a British organisation formed in 1936 with the intention of standardising police forces in the United Kingdom's Crown Colonies, Protectorates and Mandatory Palestine.[1][2] It did not become operationalized, however, until after the end of the Second World War.[3] Itself part of the overall Colonial Service, it acted as an umbrella organisation for existing bodies such as the Palestine Police Force, Royal Gibraltar Police, the Cyprus Military Police, the Federated Malay States Police Force, and the North Borneo Police Force.[4][5]
Its formation came after Sir Warren Fisher and the Fisher Committee created recommendations to reform policing in the British Empire.[3] By 1948, there were 43 total police forces and agencies that fell under its jurisdiction; every police force of the British colonies, protectorates, and territories.[6]
In 1951, CPS hosted the first-ever Colonial Police Commissioners' Conference in history. Police chiefs and commissioners from around the world came to London to discuss the postwar environment of policing in the Empire, and especially to discuss the Malayan Emergency and Operation Service.[7]
List of police forces in the Colonial Police Service
[edit]- West Africa
- East Africa
- Central & Southern Africa
- North/Northeast Africa
- Asia & Middle East
- Southeast Asia
- Caribbean & Americas
- Jamaica Constabulary Force
- Trinidad and Tobago Police Force
- Barbados Police Force
- St. Lucia Police Force
- Bahamas Police Force
- Leeward Islands Police
- Antigua
- British Virgin Islands
- Montserrat
- St. Kitts & Nevis
- Anguilla
- British Guiana Police
- British Honduras Police Force
- Falkland Islands Police
- Bermuda Police Service
- Mediterranean & Atlantic Islands
References
[edit]- ^ Sinclair, Georgina (June 1, 2010). "At the end of the line: colonial policing and the imperial endgame 1945-80". Manchester University Press – via oro.open.ac.uk.
- ^ Jeffries, Sir Charles Joseph (1952). The Colonial Police. M. Parrish.
- ^ a b Brand, O.B.E., Douglas (5 October 2023). "AN EXAMINATION OF THE APPROACH TO POLICE REFORM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SERVING POLICE OFFICERS IN THE NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE OF KENYA". University of Oxford. St Anne’s College Centre for Criminology Faculty of Law. p. 44.
- ^ Atz, J. R. (1998). "The British Colonial Police Service: A Study of its Organization and its Operations in Six British African Colonies". Proquest. Ann Arbor, MI.: University Microfilms International.
- ^ Jeffries, Sir Charles Joseph (1952). The Colonial Police. M. Parrish.
- ^ Sinclair, Georgina (2016), "Disentangling the 'Golden Threads': Policing the Lessons from Police History", The SAGE Handbook of Global Policing, 1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 29–45, doi:10.4135/9781473957923.n3, retrieved 2026-04-07
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "POLICE CHIEFS WILL HEAR MIS HEAD". The Straits Times. 2 April 1951.
