Inspection of the BCPP during the 1939 royal visit.

The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the policing body for the Canadian province of British Columbia until 1950. The force is usually dated from the appointment of Chartres Brew as Chief Constable of the province and Chief Inspector of Police for the new mainland colony in 1858. Brew had served with Royal Irish Constabulary in Cork, Ireland, before being sent to British Columbia to assist in stabilizing the situation there, beset as it was by well-armed Americans in the goldfields and the accompanying risk of annexation. At the time of his appointment, there was only one appointed constable in the northern part of the colony, theoretically patrolling 360,000 square miles by himself. Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo - Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 36 - Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area Ranked 4th - Total 944,735 km... Chartres Brew was born in Corofin, Ireland, in 1815. ... The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony of British North America from 1858 until 1871. ... The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was one of Irelands two police forces in the early twentieth century, alongside the Dublin Metropolitan Police. ... For other uses of Cork, see Cork (disambiguation). ...

BCPP officer.

The other component of the provincial constabulary was their equivalent in the Colony of Vancouver Island, where a police force of one sort or another had operated since the formation of the Island colony in 1849. Originally this force was composed of West Indians recruited by Governor Douglas, himself a mulatto from Guyana, and wore colourful outfits more like a military-dress parade uniform than conventional police clothing. This force had to be disbanded during the onset of the Fraser Gold Rush when Victoria was mobbed by thousands of Americans unwilling to submit to policing by a non-white police force (their replacement force was composed of Britons). In 1866 the police forces of the two colonies were amalgamated, as were the colonies, and in 1871 this new body was given the name British Columbia Provincial Police. See main article Vancouver Island Colonial flag of Vancouver Island, consisting of the British Blue Ensign and the great seal of the colony. ... The Gold Rush of British Columbia occurred after gold was discovered in the Fraser River Valley. ...

Police were engaged from within local communities, as per Brew's original policy on this matter, based on his experience in Ireland, and until 1923 they were plainclothes and had no uniform. By 1910 the force roster numbered 186 men. In 1923 the force was reorganized and issued frontier-style khaki uniforms with green piping, flat-brimmed stetson hats, and Sam Browne Belts, and a system of semimilitary ranks was established. A training school was established for the first time, and a mounted troop, while the force's administration divided the province into divisions to better serve its geographically-isolated regions. The Stetson Cavalry Hat For the university, see Stetson University. ... John J. Pershing wearing a Sam Browne belt. ...

BCPP highway patrol officer issuing a ticket.

Before its Criminal Investigation Department was established in the 1920s, the BCPP contracted private detective agencies for criminal investigations and for surveillance of suspected radicals, and was Pinkerton's biggest Canadian client. Nevertheless, over a short period of time, it became one of the most modern police agencies in the Canadian west. Charles Vincent, founder of the Metropolitan Police CID The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of all British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces to which plain clothes detectives belong. ... Pinkerton guards escort strikebreakers in Buchtel, Ohio, 1884 The Pinkerton National Detective Agency is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. ...

The history of the force boasts a number of firsts:

• the first inter-city radio telegraph system in North America. This system was fully integrated with radio-equipped cars and coastal patrol vessels. High-frequency radios were designed and built in the police work shops.
• The force became the first law-enforcement agency to develop an air arm crime laboratories, and sophisticated sections for fingerprints, firearm and ballistics, and identification
• highway patrols and investigation divisions.

In the 1930s the BCPP began to contract to municipalities for policing services, a practice now assumed by the successor force, the RCMP. During World War II the BCPP organized recruitment for the armed forces.

Special constables attached to the BCPP for the 1935 waterfront strike in Vancouver.

Their general duties enforced fishing and hunting licenses, providing customs and excise functions, livestock brand inspections, managed trap-line permits and dog licenses, Vital Statistics and served civil court documents. They also functioned as Court prosecutors, jailers and prisoner escort and during the labour troubles in Vancouver during the Great Depression helped enforce martial law against strikers on Vancouver's troubled docks and evict protestors from the city's main Post Office. During this period, horses for the mounted squad were relocated from Vancouver Island to the Oakalla prison farm in Burnaby. The Battle of Ballantyne Pier refers to a clash between city, provincial, and federal police and Communist-led protesters on June 18, 1935 in the East End of Vancouver, British Columbia. ... The Great Depression was a time of economic down turn, which started after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. ... Vancouver Island is separated from mainland British Columbia by the Strait of Georgia and the Queen Charlotte Strait, and from Washington by the Juan De Fuca Strait. ... Aerial view of Metrotown and central Burnaby from the south, with Burrard Inlet and North Vancouver beyond. ...

At the time of its dissolution in August 1950, the force consisted of 520 men and their budget in was $2,250,000 (similar policing costs are in the $50 million range and up now). The force was disbanded and its 492 members absorbed into the RCMP on August 15, 1950. August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

External links

• British Columbia Justice Over 92 Years A Short History (BCPP Veterans Assn website)]