The Port of London Authority Police
| Published date | 01 April 1930 |
| Date | 01 April 1930 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300209 |
| Author | W. H. A. Webster |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Port
of
London Authority Police
By W. H. A. WEBSTER, C.LE.
Chief Police Officer, Port of London Authority
JUST as the visitor who is privileged to visit for the first time
the Docks of the Port of London never fails to express
amazement at their vastness, and usually has to add a confes-
sion of his complete ignorance till that moment of their
existence, so, no doubt, readers of this Journal, even if vaguely
aware that there are some Dock Police in London, will learn
with surprise that the Port of London Authority employ for the
purpose of policing their docks a force which is numerically
greater than that employed by the great majority of the
counties and cities of England and which, indeed, outside the
metropolitan area, is surpassed in numerical strength only by
the Liverpool, Lancashire, Birmingham, West Riding, Man-
chester, Durham, and Staffordshire forces. Yet such is the
case, and in the following pages an attempt will be made to
give the reader an account of this force, of its origin, its present-
day composition, and its duties.
A word is necessary to explain what is meant by the Port
of London Authority. Until the year 1908 the Docks of
London, comprising the West India, East India, Millwall,
London and St. Katharine, Surrey Commercial, RoyalVictoria,
Royal Albert and Tilbury, were owned and administered by
private companies.
The
oldest and youngest of these docks,
respectively, are the West India Dock, constructed in 1802,
and the Tilbury Dock, constructed in 1886. Since the
Authority came into being one entirely new
dock-the
King
George
V.-has
been constructed, and several others, notably
the West India, Tilbury and Surrey Commercial, have been
extended and improved.
For
some years prior to 1900 it was
becoming only too evident that, owing to competition between
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