Marine Policing Unit

The Gabriel Franks, a Fast Response Targa 31 boat of the Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit, named after a lumper employed by the Marine Police killed in 1798, regarded as the first British marine police officer to be killed in the line of duty.

The Marine Policing Unit (MPU) is the waterborne policing unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service, forming part of the Met Taskforce (MO7) within Met Operations. Its 22 vessels are responsible for waterborne policing of the River Thames in Greater London and supporting the rest of the Metropolitan Police and to the City of London Police when dealing with incidents in or around any waterway in London. A specialist underwater and confined-spaces search team carries out searches throughout the Metropolitan Police District. The unit also has 24 officers who are trained in rope access techniques and trained to carry out searches and counter-demonstrator operations at height.

In 1839 the Marine Police Force was merged into the Metropolitan Police as the Thames Division. It held that name until being renamed the Marine Support Unit in 2001 and taking on its present name seven years later. The unit is still headquartered at Wapping, where a former carpenters' workshop also houses the River Police Museum, founded in 1974 and now curated by John Joslin and Rob Jeffries, two former officers with the unit.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ "Thames Police Museum". Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  2. ^ "The Tidal Thames - Meet Rob Jeffries". 4 August 2019.
  3. ^ Tom Chesshyre, From Source to Sea: Notes from a 215-Mile Walk Along the River Thames (Summersdale Publishers: London, 2018), Chapter 9