[1] Brew, a former member of the Royal Irish Constabulary and officially British Columbia's Chief Gold Commissioner, was vested with the powers of a magistrate to maintain state security against possible rebellion by American migrants who came to British Columbia for its gold rush and the accompanying the risk of annexation.

[2][3][4][5] The BCPP was deeply integrated into British Columbia's new colonial administration due to geographic isolation and small population, holding numerous unusual responsibilities such as registrars, tax collectors, statisticians, meteorologists, and postmasters.

[6][7] Over time, the BCPP transitioned into a purely law enforcement agency, providing provincial and municipal police services across the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island.

That year, the population of the Colony of Vancouver Island had risen from a few hundred to many thousand, almost overnight, due to the influx of migrants related to the gold rush on the Fraser River in British Columbia.

The Victoria Voltigeurs were a semi-formal police composed of West Indians, Metis, and other so called "mixed bloods" recruited by Governor James Douglas, himself a mulatto from Guyana.

In 1853, Douglas had commissioned four citizens to serve as magistrates and justices of the peace for the three districts of the colony that comprised the area immediately west of Victoria.

The force were engaged from within local communities, as per Brew's original policy on this matter based on his experience in Ireland, and until 1923 they were in plainclothes and had no uniform.

In 1923, the BCPP was reorganized and issued frontier-style khaki uniforms with green piping, flat-brimmed stetson hats, and Sam Browne belts, and a system of semi-military ranks was established.

A training school was established for the first time, and a mounted troop, while the force's administration divided the province into divisions to better serve its geographically isolated regions.

The BCPP became the first law-enforcement agency to develop an air arm, crime laboratories, and sophisticated sections for fingerprints, firearms and ballistics, identification, highway patrol, and investigation divisions.