The Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP; ) was the police force of the Shanghai Municipal Council which governed the Shanghai International Settlement between 1854 and 1943, when the settlement was retroceded to Chinese control.

Initially composed of Europeans, most of them Britons, the force included Chinese after 1864, and was expanded over the next 90 years to include a Sikh Branch (established 1884), a Japanese contingent (from 1916) and a volunteer part-time special police (from 1918). In 1941, it acquired a Russian Auxiliary Detachment (formerly the Russian Regiment of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps).

History Origins

The first detachment of 31 Europeans, effectively borrowed from the Hong Kong Police and led by Samuel Clifton, was recruited almost immediately after the formation of the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC). These men were on patrol by September 1854.North China Herald, 2 September 1854, p. 8. Further men were recruited from the Royal Irish Constabulary, London's Metropolitan Police and from the military presence in Shanghai itself, while a structure for recruitment of Britons in the United Kingdom eventually came about through the Shanghai Municipal Council's London agents, John Pook & Co. Once formalised, a steady stream of young men was recruited to serve in Shanghai. Promotion from the lower ranks of the force was, however, limited. Most of the force's commanders were recruited from British domestic or colonial police forces, although a cadre of young British men was recruited as cadets, and held senior ranks in the force in the 1910s-'30s.Robert Bickers, Empire Made Me, pp. 31–32

In 1936, the last year of near-normal peacetime policing, the force totaled 4,739, men with 3,466 in the Chinese Branch, 457 serving in the Foreign Branch (predominantly British), 558 in the Sikh Branch and 258 in the Japanese Branch.Shanghai Municipal Council, "Annual Report 1936"

Though the force was mostly occupied in the routine business of crime prevention, detection, and traffic control, it was also seen as the Settlement's first line of defense against Chinese nationalist activity. After the failure of the 1913 Second Revolution against the autocratic presidency of Yuan Shikai, the settlement was increasingly troubled by armed crime. In the build-up to, and aftermath of, the 1926–27 Nationalist Revolution, the force also struggled to contain a wave of armed robberies and politically motivated kidnappings. Throughout the 1930s, it faced challenges from the Nationalist Government and the police force of the (Nationalist Chinese) City Government of Shanghai, particularly over rights to operate outside the historical bounds of the Concession and in cases of extraterritoriality.

World War II and disbandment Between the Japanese occupation of China in August 1937 and the attack on Pearl Harbor on 8 December 1941, the International Settlement along with the French Concession became the only neutral areas in east China. In this crowded and officially neutral enclave, the SMP struggled to maintain order in the face of a wave of increasingly violent terrorist bombings and reprisals between the Chinese and the Imperial Japanese Army and their collaborators. With the occupation of the Settlement in December 1941 the police came under Japanese control. Although a number of British officers were arrested as political prisoners and interned in Shanghai's Haiphong Road camp, most British staff in the SMP's Foreign Branch had no choice but to stay in their posts until their eventual dismissal and internment in February/March 1943. The SMP continued after this date, and was incorporated into the police force of the amalgamated Municipality of Shanghai in mid-1943. White Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian (many of the latter being dismissed in 1944–45) staff continued to serve, as did some European personnel from Axis or neutral states.

Interned officers of the SMP had expected to return to their duties at the end of the war but the conclusion of the 1943 British-Chinese Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China confirmed the abolition of the International Settlement. The post-war city police bureau continued the employment of a steadily declining number of the former SMP's Russian cadre, although all Chinese staff remained in post.Robert Bickers, Empire Made Me, pp. 312–322 Foreign members of the SMP were dispersed, some to take up police, civilian or military employment elsewhere. Records in Shanghai indicate that some surviving Chinese personnel of the SMP were investigated as "counter-revolutionary" elements following the communist revolution in 1949.Robert Bickers, Empire Made Me, p. 15

Legacy The SMP retains the legacy as a pioneer in the field of police work, and many of its past members remain internationally renowned due to their contributions in the fields of policing and self-defence. Particularly well documented is the SMP's response to a staggering rise in armed crime, whereby serving officers such as William E. Fairbairn and Dermot 'Pat' O'Neil, working with volunteer "Special" personnel such as Eric A. Sykes, developed innovative combat pistol shooting, hand-to-hand combat skills and knife fight training.

As a result of the catastrophic policing failure of 30 May 1925, when Sikh and Chinese members of the SMP were ordered to open fire on Chinese demonstrators and thereby precipitated the nationwide anti-imperialist May Thirtieth Movement (五卅运动), the SMP developed myriad riot control measures. These techniques led to the introduction of Shanghai's "Reserve Unit" by Assistant Commissioner Fairbairn—the first modern SWAT team. The skills developed in Shanghai have been adopted and adapted by both international police forces and clandestine warfare units. William Fairbairn was again the central figure, not only leading the Reserve Unit but teaching his new methods to law enforcement agencies in the United States, Cyprus, and Singapore.

Special Branch A political policing unit had existed within the SMP from 1898, the so-called Intelligence Office, but this was renamed Special Branch in 1925 aligning with the form used throughout the British Commonwealth.

The office's greatest coup was the arrest of Jakob Rudnik (a.k.a. Hilaire Noulens) and his wife Tatiana Moissenko on 15 June 1931. The arrest, the result of close co-ordination with the Special Branches in Singapore, MI6 and French colonial intelligence, broke up the Comintern's secret International Liaison Department in the city. The SMP also correctly identified Richard Sorge as a member of the Third International; he was resident in the city from 1930 to 1933.Records of the Shanghai Municipal Police, "Foreign Agents of the Third International, D4718" May 18, 1933, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 263, Entry A1-02, 190/24/30/06, Box 37 After 1928, Special Branch worked closely with Kuomintang intelligence services, helping to destroy and disperse much of the urban base of the Chinese Communist Party by 1932. The Special Branch's archive was acquired by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1949 and was eventually opened to researchers in the 1980s, although the files had clearly been weeded to remove material that might compromise some figures with a Shanghai past.

Shanghai police ranks The Shanghai Municipal Police used police ranks based along British lines, and owed much to the Victorian rank-structure of the Metropolitan Police Force. From lowest to highest, the ranks were:

Constable (post-1929, Probationary Sergeant) Sergeant Sub-Inspector Inspector Chief Inspector Superintendent Assistant Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Commissioner of Police (pre-1919, Captain-Superintendent)

Police stations Between 1854 and the police's effective end in 1943, some 14 police stations were in use at various times.

Central Station (1854–1943): Foochow Road Louza Station (1860–1943): Nanking Road, scene of the May 30 Movement on May 30, 1925 Bubbling Well Road Station (1884–1943) Sinza Road Station (1899–1943) Gordon Road Station (1909–43) Chungdu Road Station (1933–43) Pootoo Road Station (1929–43) Hongkew Station (1861–1943) West Hongkew Station (1898–1943) Yangtszepoo Station (1891–1943) Wayside Station (1903–43) Arnold Road Station (1907–43) Yulin Road Station (1925–43) Dixwell Road Station (1912–43)

The 1930s Longchang apartments building, a former dormitory complex for Chinese constables and their families, is now a government-protected building.

Force commanders The actual rank of the commander of the force evolved from Superintendent, to Captain Superintendent, and then to Commissioner of Police Samuel Clifton (Superintendent 1854–60), resigned after charges of embezzlement were "not proved" in court (North China Herald, 24 November 1860). William Ramsbottom (still titled Inspector in February 1862, though Superintendent from 19 April 1861). Late Sgt.-Major, 2nd Queen's. Resignation submitted due to ill health, 9 October 1863. Charles E. Penfold (Superintendent, 19 April 1864–85). James Painter McEuen (Captain Superintendent, 6 March 1885 to 25 July 1896), previously a Royal Navy captain and Hong Kong Harbour Master, invalided, died on way home, Yokohama. Donald Mackenzie (Deputy Superintendent, also acting Captain Superintendent 16 September 1896–98). Pierre B. Pattison (Captain Superintendent, 12 Feb 1898"Meetings: The Shanghai Municipal Council", North China Herald, Shanghai, 14 March 1898, p.24-30 September 1900), on secondment from Royal Irish Constabulary, but denied extension for apparent political reasons. G. Howard (Chief Inspector, Acting i/c 1 October 1900 – 8 March 1901). Alan Maxwell Boisragon (Captain Superintendent, 8 March 1901 – 20 September 1906), forced to resign after Mixed Court Riot of 1905. Boisragon had been one of the two survivors of the 1897 massacre, which prompted the British Benin Expedition. Kenneth John McEuen (acting i/c Sept 1906 – August 1907). Col. Clarence Dalrymple Bruce (Captain Superintendent, 7 August 1907–13), forced to resign after being scapegoated for SMC attempt to annex Zhabei (Chapei) during the Second Revolution. Alan Hilton-Johnson (acting Captain Superintendent 1914), resigned to serve in British Army during Great War. Kenneth John McEuen (Captain Superintendent, 1914–25), forced to retire after May 30 incident (son of J.P. McEuen) (alongside Louza Station Commander, Inspector Edward William Everson (Police Inspector of Louza Station, 1923-25). Edward Ivo Medhurst Barrett (Commissioner of Police, 1925–29), forced to resign. Reginald Meyrick Jullion Martin (Extra Commissioner, 1929–31, until F.W. Gerrard appointed permanently to post). Frederick Wernham Gerrard (Commissioner of Police, 7 October 1929–38), retired. Kenneth Morrison Bourne (Commissioner of Police, 29 March 1938 – August 1941). With the support of Deputy Commissioner Henry Malcolm Smyth, Bourne departed on furlough to take his sons to school in North America and shifted towards a position in MI6. For much of the war Bourne worked for the British Security Executive in New York. In February 1945 he was appointed to take charge of the Chinese Intelligence section of the Government of India's intelligence bureau. Henry Malcolm Smyth, OBE (Deputy Commissioner of Police, 1938–42; acting Commissioner, August 1941 – February 42). Resigned due to Japanese Occupation; Advisor to (Japanese) Commissioner of Police Watari 21 February 1942 – 10 August 1942. Then as a result of a special arrangement made with the Japanese, Smyth and over 100 senior Shanghai Municipality Civil Servants and Police Officers were repatriated to the neutral Portuguese colonial port of Lorenco Marques. (渡正監, Commissioner of Police from 19 February 1942) – 1 August 1943. International Settlement retroceded, and with SMP absorbed into Greater Shanghai Municipality.

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