The Reigate Borough Police were established 5 March 1864. The Watch Committee of the Borough requested tenders for the supply of suits of clothing for a Superintendent and nine policemen in March 1864 with the tenders to be received by 19 March. The uniforms were to be according to the regulation pattern of the Surrey Constabulary.

Superintendent Robert Gifford was appointed to lead the Reigate Borough Police at establishment but remained only until 14 March 1884. Mr George Rogers succeeded him as Superintendent, starting 14 March 1864, and was the first to be called Head Constable as of 2 March 1870. Mr Rogers was for many years previous in the Metropolitan Police.

Under Superintendent Rogers, in 1865, the Reigate Borough Police were inspected by Captain Willis, the Government Inspector, who complained of the undue length of the beats on some of the Constables in his report, recommending the Force to be increased to fourteen, including the Superintendent. He also complained of the want of a lock-up at Warwick Town for the temporary custody of prisoners. In response to the report, in September 1865, the Watch Committee agreed to the purchase of a piece of land 70ft by 40ft, adjoining the Corn Exchange, for the erection of a Police Station. A plan was to be prepared for four cells and a residence for the Sergeant at a cost not to exceed, £350. This was adopted by the Town Council in November. Captain Willis recommended the Government to allow the grant, amounting to the Government funding one-fourth of the cost of the Police to the Borough with his 1866 report. The number of Constables at the time stood at fourteen, with great care having been taken by Superintendent Rogers to select men well fitted for Police duty. The Inspector, Captain Willis, congratulated the Committee on having such an efficient force, observing that it would be difficult to find a finer body of men in so small a force. In 1868, he further recommended their pay should be raised to the same standard as the County Force. He complained of the station-house at Reigate and remarked that two years ago the promise had been made by the authorities that the station should be remedied.

Mr Rogers retired on 1 May 1888 on a pension of £55 per annum. Inspector William Pearson, of the Chesterfield Police, aged 33, was appointed to succeed Mr Rogers as Head Constable of the Borough of Reigate on 19 March 1888 in a meeting of the Watch Committee lasting upwards of three hours where the merits of the six selected final candidates were carefully gone into. There were fifty candidates for the position. Mr Pearson entered upon his duties 1 May 1888. During his tenure of office, the discipline of the Force much improved. Mr Pearson left the Reigate Borough Police 11 May 1891 after having been found by a Police Sergeant playing cards in one of the principal hotels in Redhill at four o'clock in the morning. The Watch Committee had censured him and felt no futher action should be taken but, after an animated discussion, an amendment was moved that Head Constable Pearson be asked to send in his resignation and that, if he refused, the Watch Committee would request him to vacate his position. The amendment was carried by 15 to 4. Mr Pearson resigned as Head Constable of Reigate Borough Police on 11 June 1891. He obtained an appointment in Northumberland, on the borders of Scotland, in a district where he was well known, in connection with the collieries, and not with the police, starting the following Monday. In his final week, he did manage to distinguish himself in connection in the course of his duties with two high profile crimes, making a memorable closing to his career in Reigate.

By the Superannuation Act 1890, if a Police Constable left the police force with the purpose of entering into some other employment, it was optional on the part of the Watch Committee to restore to them a part or the whole of the payments made to the Superannuation Fund of the Borough that employed them. As Mr Pearson had left the Borough and not entered into another police force, it was optional for the Watch Committee to return to him those payments, which they thought proper to do in the amount of a little over £11. If entering into the police service in another district, the funds would have been transferred to the credit of the new police force.

Upon Mr Morant departing Reigate in 1894 to be appointed to command the force in South Shields, a vacancy was therefore created in the Borough of Reigate. The Watch Committee advertised for candidates, fourteen applied and, out of this number, five were selected to appear before the Committee. The choice eventually fell upon Mr Philip John Woodman of Bradford. Mr Woodman arrived 15 October to commence as the Head Constable of the Reigate Borough Police. A few short weeks later the officials at the Borough of Reigate were quite taken aback when, on December 8, it was announced he had gone to Bradford 6 December and had been arrested for embezzlement. He was sentenced to five month's imprisonment with hard labour having been convicted on his own confession. In a meeting of the Watch Committee 11 December, the Committee resolved to dismiss Mr Woodman from the combined offices of Head Constable, Inspector of Common Lodging Houses and Inspector under the Explosives Act and the Shop Hours Act. They also then proceeded to consider the appointment of a successor to Mr Woodman and eventually decided that James Metcalfe, Bacup Police, and John Morton, Huddersfield Police, should be invited to appear before them on 17 December 1894.

On that date, the applications and testimonials were read and each candidate for the Head Constableship was called in and questioned by the Chairman. It was finally resolved that Mr James Metcalfe, Inspector at Bacup Borough Police, being second in command, be appointed to the command of the Reigate Borough Police. In addition, he was appointed Inspector of Weights and Measures, Inspector of Explosives, Inspector of Common Lodging Houses, Inspector under the Petroleum Acts and the Shop Hours Act for the Borough at a salary, for all duties, of £140 by the year, besides £60 by the year towards a residence, payable by weekly instalments.

In place of Mr Metcalfe, Mr William H Beacher commenced his duties as the new Chief Constable 1 January 1931, the first head of Reigate Borough Police to be titled as Chief Constable. Mr Beacher was previously Superintendent with the West Sussex Police. Chief Constable Beacher invented, in collaboration with PC Green and Mr Alexander C Bell, a member of the Borough Special Constabulary, a chromium-plated quick-reference index case, in book form, to be used in the detection of crime as a means of expediting the apprehension of wanted cars and persons. It was in use by Reigate Borough Police and was intended to be fitted to the dashboard of a car or on the handlebars of motorcycles. It was examined with great interest by the Chiefs of the Home Counties when demonstrated at a meeting of the Chief Constable's Association in 1935. In that same year, the two mobile officers of Reigate Borough Police covered 27,308 miles.

The merger of the Reigate Borough Police Force with the Surrey Joint Constabulary became an accomplished fact on 1 February 1943. The Reigate Borough Police became the Reigate Borough Division of the Surrey Joint Constabulary with the Borough's Chief Constable, Mr W H Beacher, as Superintendent of the Division. There were no other immediate changes of rank or in personnel as a result of the merger and, for the time being, there were no changes in the uniform or badges of the Force, so that members of the Reigate Division continued to wear their distinctive badge with the Borough Arms.