Branches of the BSA Police
From its earliest days on the frontier, the BSA Police developed a command structure that balanced military‑style hierarchy with the practical demands of policing a vast and changing country. As the force matured, its responsibilities broadened and specialised, giving rise to a wide array of branches, departments, and sections that reflected both operational necessity and the evolving character of Rhodesia itself. The slider below offers a broad overview of that organisational landscape and the position each branch occupied within the hierarchy; it is necessarily a general snapshot, as the structure shifted over time.
Headquarters
Police General Headquarters situated in then Montague Avenue, Salisbury was the hub and control of command within the British South Africa Police….
Uniform Branch
The Uniform Branch was, naturally, the mainstay of the BSA Police. Originally the force was split by distict partition between the District and Town…
Traffic Branch
The origins of the BSA Police Traffic Branch are a little vague aside from the fact that it was first establish at Bulawayo in 1944 and comprised a…
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), also referred to as the plain clothes branch, was the core of the force’s serious crime detection and…
Depot
Training was a cornerstone of the BSA Police, and the dedicated Training Branch oversaw all instruction at the two principal depots, Morris and…
Special Branch
The Special Branch was responsible to the Deputy Commissioner (Crime and Security) for the gathering of intelligence. Certain sections within the…
Support Unit
The Support Unit’s origins go back to the formation of an Askari Platoon after the First World War. Many of its men had seen action with the…
Police Reserve
A reserve force was first muted in 1913 and with the advent of World War I there is reference to “Supernumerary Constables” being used in the towns,…