When was the first police force independent of the Judiciary established?
First POLICE FORCE
The first POLICE FORCE functioning independently of the judiciary was established in Paris by a Royal Edict of March 1667, separating the judicial and police responsibilities of the Royal Watch. For the first time a Lieutenant of Police was appointed and charged with the security of the city. This post was filled for the next 30 years by Gabriel-Nicholas de la Reynie, who commanded a paramilitary force of 554 policemen, of whom 144 were mounted.
Originally the Paris Police Force was operated exclusively from the Chatelet, but in 1698 la Reynie’s successor, the Marquis d’Argenson, established a police post at the Pont-Neuf, the first office to correspond with what today would be termed a ‘police station’.
The Paris Police became a uniformed force by an Ordinance of the Prefect, Louis-Marie Debelleyme dated 12 March 1829.’
The first statutory police force was the Marine Police Establishment, which was given the authority of law under the Thames River Police Act of July 1800. The Force had been founded two years earlier as a private venture similar to the various 18th-century police enterprises instigated by the Justices and others.
