The following is a list of law enforcement agencies operating in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
Employees working at federal penitentiaries are designated as federal Peace Officers under Section 10 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act[1]. The CSC officially came into being on April 10, 1979, when Queen Elizabeth II signed authorization for the newly commissioned agency and presented it with its armorial bearings.
Most, if not all, major municipalities in British Columbia employ bylaw officers for the enforcement of civic laws. These officers are peace officers when on duty, and have the appropriate obligations and powers of arrest.
Most of these early municipal/city police departments listed below would have had anywhere from one to five constables employed depending on the size of the town's population, crime levels and civil disorder. When created, these small police forces would have taken over or complemented the already existing British Columbia Provincial Police stationed in the area. They were cities, towns and districts that would have expanded rapidly in the late 1800s early 1900s due to being ports, forestry, farming or mining centres and needed to create their own police forces to deal with crime, fines, taxes and fees within the city or town limits since the British Columbia Provincial Police would not do this for them. Some of these municipal constable appointments may have been full time or as needed on call basis. Typically each historical municipal police department would have had at a minimum a full time chief constable.[19]