Police

Police forces are government organizations charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. The word comes from the French, and less directly from the Greek politeia, referring to government or administration; the word police was coined in France in the 18th century. The police may also be known as a constabulary, after constables, who were an early manifestation of police officers.

Function in society

In most Western legal systems, the major role of the police is to discourage (deter) and investigate crimes, with particular emphases on crime against persons or property and the maintenance of public order, and if able to apprehend suspected perpetrator(s), to detain them, and inform the appropriate authorities. See criminal law.

Police are often used as an emergency service and may provide a public safety function at large gatherings, as well as in emergencies, disasters, and search and rescue situations. To provide a prompt response in emergencies, the police often coordinate their operations with fire and emergency medical services. In many countries there is a common emergency service number that allows the police, firefighters or medical services to be summoned to an emergency.

Police are also responsible for reporting minor offences by issuing citations which typically may result in the imposition of fines, particularly for violations of traffic law. Police sometimes involve themselves in the maintenance of public order, even where no legal transgressions have occurred — for example, in some Australian jurisdictions, people who are drunk and causing a public nuisance may be removed to a "drying-out centre" until they recover from the effects of the alcohol.

History

In ancient times, the military was mostly responsible for maintaining law and order in cities. The Roman Empire had a reasonably effective law enforcement system until the decline of the empire, though there was never an actual police force in the city of Rome itself. Beginning in the 5th century, policing became a function of clan chiefs and heads of state. Local lords and nobles were responsible to maintain order in their lands, and often appointed a constable, sometimes unpaid, to enforce the law.

In 1663, London hired watchmen to guard the streets at night, augmenting the force of unpaid constables, as the first paid law enforcement body. This practice was widespread throughout the United Kingdom. Then, on June 30, 1800 the authorities of Glasgow, Scotland successfully petitioned the Government to pass the Glasgow Police Act establishing the City of Glasgow Police. This was the first professional police service in the country and was different from previous law enforcement in that it practiced preventative policing. This was quickly followed in other towns, which set up their own police forces by individual Acts of Parliament [1]. In 1829, the Metropolitan Police Act was passed by Parliament, allowing Sir Robert Peel, the then home secretary, to found the London Metropolitan Police, generally regarded as the first civil police force organised on modern lines. It became a model for the police forces of many countries, including the United States. The first police service to be set up outside the UK was in Gibraltar, with the formation of the Gibraltar Police (now Royal Gibraltar Police) in 1830.

By 1721, the Mossos d'Esquadra had been formed in Catalonia in north eastern Spain.

In 1834, the Toronto Police were founded in Canada, one of the first municipal police departments in North America.

In the United States some of the first full-time police forces were the Boston Police Department founded in 1839 and New York City Police Department in 1845.

Police around the world

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.

Australia

In Australia there are two levels of police forces, the state police and the Australian Federal Police.

Each State as well as the Northern Territory is responsible for maintaining its own police force which is responsible for policing at the state and local level. This involves general law and order, traffic policing, major crime, anti-terrorism branches, water police, search and rescue and in some states transit police. Local policing in the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory and Australia's external territories is contracted to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

In some states, local governments employ by-laws officers or rangers to enforce local by-laws or ordinances relating to such matters as parking, dog ownership, retailing, littering or water usage. These local government officers are not considered to be police forces as they generally only have the power to issue fines and do not have the same powers as state police, such as the power of arrest.

The Australian Federal Police operates at a Federal level and concerns itself with Federal laws including corporate law, drug smuggling, money laundering, people smuggling, e-crime and anti-terrorism. Australian Federal Police Officers also serve on international peacekeeping and policing operations in such places as Cyprus, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Other Federal Agencies are also responsible for specific areas of law enforcement. These include the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Customs Service.

Brazil

In Brazil there are two or three levels of policing: the Brazilian Federal Police, the Brazilian Federal Highway Patrol and state police operate everywhere, and some cities also have City Guards.

Each State is responsible for maintaining its own police forces, which are responsible for policing at the state and local level. Patrol and order duties are carried out by a military police force and investigation duties by a civil police force.

In some cities, the local government employs city guards, who patrol municipal property such as parks and the environs of city halls. City guards are not permitted to carry firearms on duty.

In some cities, there is a neighbourhood watch program. These "police" patrol a designated neighbourhood at night on bicycles, and are provided with police weapons. They monitor the streets until morning. There is a monthly fee for this service.

The Brazilian Federal Police operates at a Federal level and concerns itself with Federal laws, including corporate law, drug smuggling, money laundering, people smuggling, e-crime and anti-terrorism.

Canada

In Canada, there are three levels of police forces: municipal, provincial, and federal. Constitutionally, law enforcement is a provincial responsibility, although most urban areas have been given the authority to maintain their own police forces. Small municipalities contract out their law enforcement to the provincial authorities, and all but three provinces in turn contract out their provincial law enforcement responsibilities to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the federal force, which therefore is the only police force to service three distinct levels in the area.

Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland maintain their own provincial police forces: The Ontario Provincial Police, Sûreté du Québec (Quebec Provincial Police) and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Smaller Canadian cities often contract police service from the RCMP, while larger cities maintain their own force.

There are also a few private police forces, with the same powers as other governmental forces. The Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways both have their own police forces, whose duty is to prevent pilferage of the merchandise being carried on their rail systems and to protect staff, passengers and property. Other entities, such as Hydro Québec ^{[citation needed]} and formerly the National Harbour Board, also have their own police forces.

France

In France, there are two separate national police agencies, with overlapping but different jurisdiction:

• the National Police (Police Nationale) in the towns;
• the Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale; military police) in the country, villages and small towns.

A similar diffusion exists, or has existed, in several other countries following the French system.

Additionally, French municipalities may have a local police called the police municipale, garde municipale or garde champetre, with restricted powers: they can only enforce the municipal by-laws (amongst which those related to the road circulation) and participate in prevention actions (survey, evacuation of buildings, protection against accidents, etc.). These personnel may or may not be allowed to bear firearms.

In French, the term "police" not only refers to the forces, but also to the general concept of "maintenance of law and order" (policing). There are two types of police in this general sense:

• administrative police (police administrative): uniformed preventative patrols, traffic duties etc., with limited powers of arrest.
• judicial police (police judiciaire): law enforcement and investigation of crime, with full powers of arrest.

Thus, the mayor has administrative police power in a town (i.e. they can order the police to enforce the municipal by-laws), and a judge has police power in their court (i.e. they can have people who disrupt the proceedings expelled from the court room).

Until 1984, the National Police was involved in the prehospital care and casualty transport (Police secours). The prehospital care is now performed by firefighters; however, mountain rescue is performed by the Gendarmerie PGHM (Peloton de gendarmerie de haute montagne) and the National Police CRS (Compagnies républicaines de sécurité; Republican Security Companies).

Some other countries follow this model and have separate police agencies with the same role but different jurisdictions.

Germany

Germany is a Federal Republic based on sixteen states. Each of those states has its own police force (Polizei in german). Each is supervised by the Minister (or, in Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin, the Senator) of Internal Affairs of the state.

Although uniforms and vehicle colour schemes are similar all over Germany, the police forces are structured slightly differently in each state. For example, the Kriminalpolizei (detective branch, also known as Kripo) are part of the ordinary police force in some states and separate organizations in others.

In addition, the Federal Government has a Federal Police, previously called the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Protection), but from 2005 named the Bundespolizei (Federal Police).

The German Federal Railways also had its own police force, the Bahnpolizei, similar in role to the UK's British Transport Police. When the railways were privatised in the 1990s, the Bahnpolizei was assimilated into the Bundesgrenzschutz, since executive power in Germany is only permitted by law to be under government control. Private police forces are therefore not allowed in Germany.

Due to the idea of using the same color of police uniforms and vehicles throughout the European Union, the German police have in the last few years begun to slowly change from green to blue. Hamburg was the first state to make the transition.

Before German reunification on 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic was policed by the Volkspolizei.

India

The police is under the state jurisdiction. The police reports to the state home department. Each state has its State Police and large cities have a metropolitan police.

Interpol

Most countries are members of the International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol, established to detect and fight trans-national crime and provide for international co-operation and coordination of other police activities, such as notifying relatives of the death of foreign nationals. Interpol does not conduct enquiries nor arrests by itself, but only serves as a central point for information on crime, suspects and criminals. Political crimes are excluded from its competencies.

Japan

Japan's police are an apolitical body under the general supervision of an independent agency, the National Police Agency, and free of direct central government executive control. They are checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press. The police are generally well respected and can rely on considerable public cooperation in their work.

Russia

The police in Russia are called МИЛИЦИЯ (militsiya). This change of name started at the Russian Revolution via a Communist political idea of "replacing the capitalist police by a people's militia"; but the name "militsiya" has persisted after the Communist system collapsed. One reason may be to avoid confusion with the astonishing number and variety of words which start with pol- in Russian and related languages.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a unitary (as opposed to federal) state, and police forces, generally speaking, are organised at the level of administrative districts. Certain departments of the Metropolitan Police operate throughout the country, including the Anti-Terrorist Branch, Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department, and certain units of Special Branch. The new Serious Organised Crime Agency will also be a national agency that will work in all police areas. The smallest UK force is the City of London Police. There are over 50 police forces in the United Kingdom.

United States

In the United States, there are several levels of policing and law enforcement services, federal police, state police (often called state troopers or highway patrol), special-purpose district police (parks, schools, housing, transit, etc), county police (sheriffs, constables, and some county police agencies), and local police. There are tens of thousands of separate police forces.

Local policing is usually conducted by the police departments at the county, city, township or village level and may range from one person offices (sometimes still called the town marshal) to the 40,000 men and women of the New York City Police Department. County sheriffs, county police, state police, and highway patrols enforce laws in their particular jurisdictions and are usually the only police in unincorporated areas beyond the jurisdiction of the cities. They also assist the local police with investigations and may operate county jails. Special district police vary in their levels of authority. In some states, they serve as little more than security police, but in states such as California, special district forces are composed of fully-sworn peace officers with statewide authority. These include the Los Angeles School Police Department, which with a deployment of 525 sworn and non-sworn personnel covers 708 square miles from five police divisions and the Minneapolis Park Police Department, a much smaller unit with a deployment of 38 sworn police officers and 27 non-sworn Park Patrol agents.

Federal police fall into two broad categories:

• Investigative agencies (such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Secret Service); and
• uniformed security police agencies (such as the Federal Protective Service, U.S. Mint Police, United States Park Police and United States Border Patrol).

Both types operate at the highest level and are endowed with police or quasi-police roles. The investigative agencies have nationwide jurisdiction, while the uniformed agencies tend to have rather limited territorial jurisdictions. The FBI has the most general investigative powers, while the other federal agencies are highly specialized. All federal agencies are limited by the U.S. Constitution to investigating only matters that are explicitly within the power of the federal government, like interstate commerce. However, federal investigative powers have become very broad in practice, especially since the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Because of all this complexity, at a crime or disaster scene affecting large numbers of people, there will be many different police agencies involved. Usually the highest local agency, or the highest federal law enforcement agency (the FBI), if a federal law was involved, will take command in such confusing situations, as depicted in movies like The Negotiator or Die Hard.

Police armament and equipment

In many jurisdictions, police officers carry firearms in the normal course of their duties.

Police often have specialist units for handling armed offenders, and similar dangerous situations, and can often, in extreme circumstances, call on the military, sometimes including special forces like the SAS. They can also be equipped with non-lethal (more accurately known as "less than lethal" or "less-lethal") weaponry, particularly for riot control. Non-lethal weapons include batons, shields, riot control agents, rubber bullets and stun guns. The use of firearms or deadly force is typically a last resort only to be used when necessary to save human life, although some jurisdictions allow its use against fleeing felons and escaped convicts. Police officers often also carry handcuffs to restrain suspects.

Modern police forces make extensive use of radio communications equipment, carried both on the person and installed in vehicles, to coordinate their work, share information, and get help quickly. In recent years, vehicle-installed computers have enhanced the ability of police communications, enabling easier dispatching of calls, criminal background checks on persons of interest to be completed in a matter of seconds, and updating the officer's daily activity log and other required reports on a real-time basis. Other common pieces of police equipment include flashlights, whistles, and, most importantly, notebooks and "ticketbooks" or citations.

In specific countries

India

Unlike in many other countries, the various state police forces in India extensively use the Jeep as their main mode of transport. Jeeps are known for their capabilities to move around in any sort of terrain. The Jeep is always the primary mode of transport at the police station, although for traffic enforcement and patrolling, motorcycles are also extensively used. The Jeeps are provided with wireless sets, light bars and sirens. In specific cases, the Jeeps may also be fitted with hard covers, rather than the canvas cover.

Ireland

The Republic of Ireland has an unarmed police force, An Garda Síochána, although they are all trained to use firearms and all detectives and special units carry them.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom and some other countries of the British police tradition, the police are not normally issued firearms, but are issued other weapons (batons, pepper spray, CS Spray etc.), although some officers may be issued firearms in special situations. This originates from the formation of the Metropolitan Police in the 19th Century, when police were not armed, partly to counter public fears and objections concerning armed enforcers. However, the Ministry of Defence Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and Police Service of Northern Ireland (formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary) are issued firearms as a matter of routine. Every force can also call upon armed response units in a matter of minutes, and certain specialist squads, such as the Flying Squad, Special Branch, Diplomatic Protection Group, Royalty Protection Branch, and officers protecting airports and government buildings, are routinely armed.

The archetypal British "bobby" walked his beat alone. Apart from rapid response units, motor vehicles were rarely used except in rural districts (and even there, bicycles were more common). However, in the last few decades the police have become increasingly motorised and it is now rare to see an officer on foot patrol except in city or town centres, and then rarely alone, although police forces have recently begun to put more police back on the beat. Patrol cars, sometimes known as panda cars (or sometimes jam sandwiches), are in use everywhere and may be crewed by one or two officers. Except for rapid response and traffic patrol vehicles, they are generally smaller and less powerful than American vehicles.

United States

Police in the United States usually carry a pistol (Glocks and Sig-Sauers are the most common) and an impact weapon - a baton, also known as a "nightstick". Most large police departments have elite SWAT units which are called in to handle situations which require greater force, such as hostage situations and building raids. A few departments have an armored vehicle for especially dangerous work. Some departments also use nonlethal weapons like Mace, pepper spray, electroshock guns, and beanbag rifles. Some police departments allow their officers to carry shotguns or assault rifles in their vehicles for additional firepower.

To efficiently cover the sprawling layout of the typical American city and the large distances of rural areas, American police officers usually patrol in pairs called "units," and ride in specialized cars (such as the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor) called "cruisers", "patrol cars", or "prowl cars", or in the New York City Police Department "RMPs" (Radio Motor Patrol). High-speed car chases are common in certain areas of the United States, so police officers are usually trained in high-speed driving techniques and the PIT maneuver. Horses are still used, mainly in crowd control situations, but in remote areas occasionally for patrol or search and rescue.

Restrictions upon the power of the police

In order for police officers to do their job well, they are vested by the state with a monopoly in the use of certain powers. These include the powers to arrest, search, seize, and interrogate; and if necessary, to kill. In nations with democratic systems and the rule of law, the law of criminal procedure has been developed to regulate officers' discretion, so that they do not exercise their vast powers arbitrarily or unjustly.

In American criminal procedure, the most famous case is Miranda v. Arizona which led to the widespread use of Miranda warnings. American police are also prohibited from holding criminal suspects for more than a reasonable amount of time (usually two days) before arraignment, using torture to extract confessions, using excessive force to effect an arrest, and searching suspects' bodies or their homes without a warrant obtained upon a showing of probable cause. There are exceptions for exigent circumstances such as the need to disarm a suspect who is resisting arrest. The Posse Comitatus Act prevents the use of the U.S. military for police activity, giving added importance to police SWAT units.

British police officers are governed by similar rules, particularly those introduced under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, but generally have greater powers. They may, for example, legally search any suspect who has been arrested, or their vehicles, home or business premises, without a warrant, and may seize anything they find in a search as evidence. Unlike the system in many countries, a British police officer's rank has no bearing on his or her powers - all police powers are derived from the "office of constable" into which every police officer has been sworn and the newest probationary constable (or part-time volunteer special constable) has exactly the same powers as the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Britain's most senior police officer.

Difficult issues

Police organizations must sometimes deal with the issue of police corruption, which is often abetted by a code of silence that encourages unquestioning loyalty to one's comrades over the cause of justice. In the comparatively rare event that an officer breaks this code on a significant scale, they may receive death threats or even be left for dead, as in the case of Frank Serpico. One way to fight such corruption is by having an independent or semi-independent organization investigate, such as (in the United States) the FBI, internal affairs, or the Justice Department. However, truly independent organizations are generally not called in except for the most openly severe cases.

Some police organizations, especially in multi-racial or multi-ethnic areas, are faced with routine accusations of racial profiling. Police forces also find themselves under criticism for their use of force, particularly deadly force, when a police officer of one race kills a suspect of another race. In the United States, such events routinely spark protests and accusations of racism against police.

Finally, in many places, the social status and pay of police can lead to major problems with recruitment and morale.

Policing structures

Most police forces contain subgroups whose job it is to investigate particular types of crime.

In most Western police forces, perhaps the most significant division is between "uniformed" police and detectives. Uniformed police, as the name suggests, wear uniforms, and their jobs involve overt policing operations, traffic control, and more active crime response and prevention. Detectives, by contrast, wear 'business attire' when their job is to more professionally investigate crimes, usually on a longer-term basis. There are also "plainclothes" officers, who are required to dress in more casual attire for purposes of blending in better. In some cases, police are assigned to work "undercover", where they do not identify themselves as police, sometimes for long periods, to investigate crimes, particularly organized crime, unsolvable by other means. This type of policing shares much with espionage.

Specialized groups exist within the branches either for dealing with particular types of crime (for instance, traffic policing, murder, or fraud) or because of particular specialised skills they have (for instance, diving, operating helicopters, bomb squad, and so on). Most larger jurisdictions also retain specially-trained quasi-military squads armed with small arms for the purposes of dealing with particularly violent situations; and they are often equipped with an additional arsenal of non-lethal tactical tools like tear gas, "flashbang" and concussion grenades, and rubber bullets (since their situational mandate typically focuses on removing innocent bystanders from dangerous people and dangerous situations, not violent resolution). These are sometimes called SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams.

Lastly, Western law enforcement commonly employs "internal affairs" police whose job is to oversee and investigate the officers themselves. They do not typically carry firearms and limit their work to fighting bribery, graft, and other forms of internal corruption.