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During the late 1850’s, there was a major influx of miners on route to the Fraser River and Victoria’s population was growing at a rapid rate. There was a strong demand for a municipal and colonial police force. In 1855, Governor James Douglas made a request to have ten men put together to prevent inter-racial conflicts in the Victoria settlement. In 1858, Douglas first established the Colonial Police, which was later known as the BC Provincial Police. Chartres Brew was officially appointed to help establish the force, using his ability to control the immense flow of miners from the Fraser River Gold Rush. Governor Douglas also appointed Brew’s brother in law, Augustus Pemberton as the magistrate and commissioner of police for Vancouver Island, as well granted him the authority to organize a police force for the city of Victoria. In 1860, the Victoria police department was under police Chief Francis O’Connor and the force consisted of 12 constables, a sanitary officer, a night watchman and a jailer. By 1862, the Victoria municipal police was officially recognized as a force. This coincided on the same year as the city of Victoria incorporation. However the force remained under the Governor's control until 1866. The police station and barracks were located in Bastion Square. The officers wore mainly military style uniforms along with batons and were allowed only revolvers when they were given a warrant to serve. The police barrack jail contained 16 cells; half the cells measuring 12 feet by 6 feet, another half 8 measuring 6 ½ square feet. There was also an additional cell known as the debtors’ or punishers’ cell that was used on special occasions. The sanitary conditions of the early prison cells received great criticism never the less the quality of them improved over time. The Victoria police was among the oldest of all police forces in Western Canada. The design of the force was intended to replicate that of the London metropolitan police, its model however did not ensure professionalism. For the city of Victoria in the late 1850,s and 1860’s, it was experiencing rapid societal changes and it took time for the Victoria police to modernize its force. It was not until 1891 that an official code of conduct was established for the force. The justice system proved problematic at the time. It had not been standardized yet, punishments were given on an individual basis and no crime was treated the same. The length of time between a crime committed and the time a criminal received a trial was very short in the 1860’s. It could be one or two days for minor offenses and for major offenses such as murder it was often up to three weeks at the most for the trial to follow the crime. Racial tensions and corruption were also prominent in the early legal system. When a minority committed a crime, their case received little investigation compared to the case of a white person’s crime. A white person also generally received less of a punishment than the minority. The trial processes in the 1860’s had little in terms of written documentation; it was word for word. Nowadays it can be very difficult to retrieve archival information dealing with trial transcripts due to the oral nature of the proceedings. Police charge books even though limited in information, are probably one of the only forms of colonial information for the time period prior to 1860. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documents
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BCA Call Number: C-08973
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Courtesy of Victoria Police Museum
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BCA Call Number: D-07224
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BCA Call Number: D-06365
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BCA Call Number: G-04524
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