# Colonial Police Service > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Colonial_Police_Service > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Colonial_Police_Service.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Police_Service > Source revision: 1348565571 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Coordinator of all British Empire colonies policing (established 1936)}} {{Infobox law enforcement agency | logo = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government, 1952-2022).svg | formed = 1936 | dissolved = Gradually from 1954 to 1997 | country = [British Empire](/source/British_Empire) and [United Kingdom](/source/United_Kingdom) | minister1name = [Secretary of State for the Colonies](/source/Secretary_of_State_for_the_Colonies) | chief1name = Colonial Police Advisor | chief1position = [William Johnson](/source/William_Johnson_(police_officer)) {{small|(1 November 1948)}} | parentagency = {{ubl |[Colonial Service](/source/Colonial_Service) |[Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service](/source/Her_Majesty's_Overseas_Civil_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](/source/Crown_Colony), [Protectorates](/source/British_Protectorate) and [Mandatory Palestine](/source/Mandatory_Palestine).{{Cite web|url=http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719071393/|title=At the end of the line: colonial policing and the imperial endgame 1945-80|first=Georgina|last=Sinclair|date=June 1, 2010|publisher=Manchester University Press|via=oro.open.ac.uk}}{{cite book |last1=Jeffries |first1=Sir Charles Joseph |title=The Colonial Police |date=1952 |publisher=M. Parrish |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Colonial_Police/sOorAQAAIAAJ?hl=en |language=en}} It did not become operationalized, however, until after the end of the Second World War.{{Cite web |last=Brand, O.B.E. |first=Douglas |date=5 October 2023 |title=AN EXAMINATION OF THE APPROACH TO POLICE REFORM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SERVING POLICE OFFICERS IN THE NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE OF KENYA |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:92073939-e19f-4bd4-9cbe-d931159f3981/files/rk930bz003 |website=University of Oxford |publisher=St Anne’s College Centre for Criminology Faculty of Law |page=44}} Itself part of the overall [Colonial Service](/source/Colonial_Service), it acted as an umbrella organisation for existing bodies such as the [Palestine Police Force](/source/Palestine_Police_Force), [Royal Gibraltar Police](/source/Royal_Gibraltar_Police), the [Cyprus Military Police](/source/Cyprus_Military_Police), the Federated Malay States Police Force, and the [North Borneo Police Force](/source/North_Borneo_Police_Force).{{Cite web |last=Atz |first=J. R. |date=1998 |title=The British Colonial Police Service: A Study of its Organization and its Operations in Six British African Colonies |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/53e96a0755d48b8f97b7074969014c6b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |website=Proquest |publisher=University Microfilms International |place=Ann Arbor, MI.}}{{Cite book |last=Jeffries |first=Sir Charles Joseph |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Colonial_Police/sOorAQAAIAAJ?hl=en |title=The Colonial Police |date=1952 |publisher=M. Parrish |language=en}} Its formation came after [Sir Warren Fisher](/source/Warren_Fisher_(civil_servant)) and the [Fisher Committee](/source/Fisher_Committee) created recommendations to reform policing in the [British Empire](/source/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.{{Citation |last=Sinclair |first=Georgina |title=Disentangling the ‘Golden Threads': Policing the Lessons from Police History |date=2016 |work=The SAGE Handbook of Global Policing |pages=29–45 |url=https://sk.sagepub.com/hnbk/edvol/the-sage-handbook-of-global-policing/chpt/3-disentangling-golden-threads-policing-lessons-from |access-date=2026-04-07 |place=1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |doi=10.4135/9781473957923.n3|url-access=subscription }} In 1951, CPS hosted the first-ever [Colonial Police Commissioners' Conference](/source/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](/source/Malayan_Emergency) and ''[Operation Service](/source/Operation_Service)''.{{Cite news |date=2 April 1951 |title=POLICE CHIEFS WILL HEAR MIS HEAD |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19510402-1.2.12?qt=%22j%20b%20atkinson%22&q=%22J.%20B.%20Atkinson%22 |work=The Straits Times}} == List of police forces in the Colonial Police Service == {{Columns-list|*'''West Africa''' ** [Nigeria Police Force](/source/Nigeria_Police_Force) ** [Gold Coast Police](/source/Gold_Coast_Police) ** [Sierra Leone Police](/source/Sierra_Leone_Police) ** [Gambia Police Force](/source/The_Gambia_Police_Force) *'''East Africa''' ** [Kenya Police](/source/Kenya_Police) ** [Uganda Police Force](/source/Uganda_Police_Force) ** [Tanganyika Police Force](/source/Tanganyika_Police_Force) ** [Zanzibar Police](/source/Zanzibar_Police) *'''Central & Southern Africa''' ** [Northern Rhodesia Police](/source/Northern_Rhodesia_Police) ** [Nyasaland Police Force](/source/Nyasaland_Police_Force) ** [Basutoland Mounted Police](/source/Basutoland_Mounted_Police) ** [Bechuanaland Protectorate Police](/source/Bechuanaland_Protectorate_Police) ** [Swaziland Police](/source/Swaziland_Police) *'''North/Northeast Africa''' ** [Eritrea Field Force](/source/Eritrea_Field_Force) ** [Somaliland Police](/source/Somaliland_Police) *'''Asia & Middle East''' ** [Palestine Police Force](/source/Palestine_Police_Force) ** [Cyprus Military Police](/source/Cyprus_Military_Police) ** [Aden Police](/source/Aden_Police) ** [Indian Imperial Police](/source/Indian_Imperial_Police) ** [Indian Police Service](/source/Indian_Police_Service) *'''Southeast Asia''' ** [Federated Malay States Police Force](/source/Federated_Malay_States_Police_Force) ** [Straits Settlements Police Force](/source/Straits_Settlements_Police_Force) *** [Singapore Police Force](/source/Singapore_Police_Force) ** [North Borneo Police Force](/source/North_Borneo_Police_Force) ** [Sarawak Constabulary](/source/Sarawak_Constabulary) ** [Royal Hong Kong Police Force](/source/Royal_Hong_Kong_Police_Force) ** [Ceylon Police Force](/source/Ceylon_Police_Force) *'''Caribbean & Americas''' ** [Jamaica Constabulary Force](/source/Jamaica_Constabulary_Force) ** [Trinidad and Tobago Police Force](/source/Trinidad_and_Tobago_Police_Force) ** [Barbados Police Force](/source/Barbados_Police_Force) ** [St. Lucia Police Force](/source/St._Lucia_Police_Force) ** [Bahamas Police Force](/source/Bahamas_Police_Force) ** [Leeward Islands Police](/source/Leeward_Islands_Police) *** Antigua *** British Virgin Islands *** Montserrat *** St. Kitts & Nevis *** Anguilla ** [British Guiana Police](/source/British_Guiana_Police) ** [British Honduras Police Force](/source/British_Honduras_Police_Force) ** [Falkland Islands Police](/source/Falkland_Islands_Police) ** [Bermuda Police Service](/source/Bermuda_Police_Service) *'''Mediterranean & Atlantic Islands''' ** [Royal Gibraltar Police](/source/Royal_Gibraltar_Police) ** [Malta Police Force](/source/Malta_Police_Force) ** [Mauritius Police Force](/source/Mauritius_Police_Force) ** [Seychelles Police Force](/source/Seychelles_Police_Force) ** [St. Helena Police](/source/St._Helena_Police)|colwidth=15em}} ==References== {{UK law enforcement agencies}} Category:Law enforcement agencies of dependent territories of the United Kingdom category:1936 establishments in the United Kingdom --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Colonial Police Service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Police_Service) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Police_Service?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.