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| The police are a government organisation who are given responsibility for maintaining ] and order. | The police are a government organisation who are given responsibility for maintaining ] and order. | ||
| In most Western legal systems, their primary role is to investigate ]s, and if able to determine the probable culprit(s), apprehend them (if necessary), and provide the evidence on which the police made their determination to the appropriate criminal court, either directly or through a team of prosecutors, when the case is heard. See ]. | |||
| Depending on the jurisdiction, police may also have the power to summarily punish people committing less serious offences with set fines (a typical example is fines for violations of traffic law), though in virtually all cases the person issued with the fine has the right to contest it in front of a court. | |||
| The police are also often called on to maintain law and order and protect the public, even where no crime has been committed. For instance, in some ]n jurisdictions, people who are ] and causing a public nuisance are typically no longer arrested, but legislation has been passed allowing police to take the person to a "drying-out centre" where they can recover from the effects of the alcohol. | |||
| In many countries, particularly those with a federal system of government, there may be several police or police-like organisations, each serving different levels of government and enforcing different subsets of the applicable law. In the ], for instance, there are typically police forces run by local and state authorities, as well as several federal law enforcement bodies (including the ], the ], and suchlike. Additionally, in some countries, the ] may play a substantial role in law enforcement (in most stable democracies such involvement only happens in emergencies). | |||
| ''Oh, what a great topic! We should discuss famous police departments (], NYPD, LAPD, others?), the history of police, the legal distinction(s) between military and police (and lacks thereof in some societies), what training police officers are typically required to have, comparison and contrast of policing systems, and police behavior...golly, the list goes on and on.'' | ''Oh, what a great topic! We should discuss famous police departments (], NYPD, LAPD, others?), the history of police, the legal distinction(s) between military and police (and lacks thereof in some societies), what training police officers are typically required to have, comparison and contrast of policing systems, and police behavior...golly, the list goes on and on.'' | ||
Revision as of 21:05, 4 July 2002
The police are a government organisation who are given responsibility for maintaining law and order.
In most Western legal systems, their primary role is to investigate crimes, and if able to determine the probable culprit(s), apprehend them (if necessary), and provide the evidence on which the police made their determination to the appropriate criminal court, either directly or through a team of prosecutors, when the case is heard. See criminal law.
Depending on the jurisdiction, police may also have the power to summarily punish people committing less serious offences with set fines (a typical example is fines for violations of traffic law), though in virtually all cases the person issued with the fine has the right to contest it in front of a court.
The police are also often called on to maintain law and order and protect the public, even where no crime has been committed. For instance, in some Australian jurisdictions, people who are drunk and causing a public nuisance are typically no longer arrested, but legislation has been passed allowing police to take the person to a "drying-out centre" where they can recover from the effects of the alcohol.
In many countries, particularly those with a federal system of government, there may be several police or police-like organisations, each serving different levels of government and enforcing different subsets of the applicable law. In the United States of America, for instance, there are typically police forces run by local and state authorities, as well as several federal law enforcement bodies (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and suchlike. Additionally, in some countries, the army may play a substantial role in law enforcement (in most stable democracies such involvement only happens in emergencies).
Oh, what a great topic! We should discuss famous police departments (Scotland Yard, NYPD, LAPD, others?), the history of police, the legal distinction(s) between military and police (and lacks thereof in some societies), what training police officers are typically required to have, comparison and contrast of policing systems, and police behavior...golly, the list goes on and on.
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The British Police
The word is based on the Latin politeia, referring to government or administration. The word police was coined in the 18th century, while constables had existed since Saxon times.
In Britain in 1812, 1818 and 1822 a number of committees had examined the policing of London. Based on their findings the home secretary Robert Peel passed the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, introducing a more rigourous and less discretionary approach to law enforcement. The new Metropolitan Police force, founded on September 29, was depersonalized, bureaucratic and hierarchical with the new police constables tasked to prevent crime. However in contrast to the more paramilitary police of continental Europe the British police were initially clearly civilian and their armament was limited to the truncheon, a fear of spy systems and political control also kept 'plain clothes' and even detective work to a minimum. The force was independent of the local government, through its commissioner it was responsible direct to the Home Office. The new constables were nicknamed 'peelers' or 'bobbies' after the home secretary.
Outside of the metropolitan area the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 and further legislation in 1839 and 1840 allowed counties to create their own constabulary, around thirty counties had done so before the County and Borough Police Act of 1856 made such forces mandatory and subject to central inspection. There were over 200 separate forces in England and Wales by 1860, while in Ireland a more centralized and military force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, was created.
Within the Metropolitan Police a detective force was founded in 1842 and following the Turf Fraud scandal of 1877 it was reorganized into the C.I.D. () in 1878. A pension was guaranteed by the Police Act of 1890, previously it had been discretionary.
The police became unionized during WW I and the strikes of 1918 and 1919 resulted in the Police Act of 1919, prohibiting trade unions but creating the Police Federation. However the fragmented nature of the police resisted change, there were still over 200 separate police forces before WW II and 117 before the mass reorganization of the Police Act of 1964 which created 49 larger forces covering several counties or large urban areas with limited accountability.
Evidence of widespread corruption in the 1970s, serious urban riots and the police role in controlling industrial disorder in the 1980s, and the changing nature of police procedure made police accountability and control a major political football from the 1990s onwards. A problem not helped by the steady rise in recorded crime figures.
See also: italian Carabinieri
See also the pop band The Police.