Royal Parks Constabulary

Unlike most other police forces operating in England and Wales, the Royal Parks Constabulary did not report to the Home Office, but instead to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, who provided funding for it through the Royal Parks Agency.

Before 1872, Hyde Park had its own constables who lived in some of the entrance lodges and worked out of the rooms inside Marble Arch.

One of the last Inspectors of those constables was Samuel Parkes, who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 formally abolished the Royal Parks Constabulary in England.

Many of the London-based officers from the Royal Parks Constabulary transferred into the new Metropolitan Police Royal Parks Operational Command Unit (OCU) — the new OCU is funded in the same way, through the Royal Parks Agency, with its funding "ring-fenced" to prevent it being diverted to other Metropolitan Police areas and many others transferred into British Transport Police, as within London, Royal Parks Constabulary paid to share a control room (and subsequent radio channels), crime recording systems and human resources functions with BTP.