A Bit Of Miami Vice On The River Thames

I was wandering along the North Bank of the River Thames on Saturday afternoon, when I heard an announcement come over what sounded like a tannoy speaker. It said, “pull over to the bank on your right and do it now”.

I thought WTF is happening, have those Yanks that were confused over the names of Tower Bridge and London Bridge, doing something stupid? Such as blocking the bridge in protest or dangling themselves from it in the nude to draw the worlds attention to the confusion it causes for American tourists. I know the despair and disillusionment that many Americans feel when they find out that the famous bridge that crosses the River Thames is in fact Tower Bridge, not London Bridge.

The tannoy announcement had came from “The Thames Police”, motor launch which patrols the river. They were in fact requesting that a fancy looking motor boat pull over to the side. I don’t know what the problem was or what they had done wrong, or whether the cops just fancied a wee look of the rich peoples boat.

This was no ordinary boat, it was in fact Boating Magazines Boat of the Year 2005, so it said on the side of it. It sure was a bit of Miami Vice on the River Thames. As the police motor boat pulled alongside the fancy boat, I was half expecting Sonny Sprocket and Rico Tibbs to jump off the cop boat with guns a blazing. But no such luck.

The Thames River Police were founded in 1798 to bring badly needed law and order to the dark and murky waterways of the River Thames. It’s objective was the prevention and detection of crime on the Thames.

Way back in the old days the main tasks of the “The Thames Police” was primarily preventing pirates from looting the rivers shipping. The River Thames was a hive of commercial industry in those days.

Nowadays the river polices duties include providing a 24 hour response, the Underwater and Confined Space Search Team, Operations and  Counter Terrorism Tesponse as well as training and support.

The police patrol launches of today are a lot faster than they look and are capable of more than forty knots, which is a wee bit faster than  the original rowing galleys they first used.

There is always something happening 24 hours a day along the banks of or on the River Thames. It was a pity that there wasn’t some cops to deal with the two drunk youths that I walked past a few minutes later lying on the ground with sickness all over themselves.

As we all know in London you very rarely see real cops on the beat nowadays. I guess that’s why so many of them look fat and out of shape. As far as those community cops are concerned you never see them when there is some policing to be done, those clowns are only doing it for a jolly. London is cool, but sometimes it is so uncool.

Related posts:

1. Down By The River Thames – Wordless Wednesday
2. Pictures Of A Wee Night Time Walk Along The River Thames
3. The Boat Race | Blink And You Would Have Missed It