Police

   

For the band, see The Police. For the Polish town, see Police, Poland.
A car of the Devon and Cornwall Police, England
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A car of the Devon and Cornwall Police, England
A police car for the Maryland State Police, United States
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A police car for the Maryland State Police, United States

Police forces are government organisations ostensibly 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.

Introduction

In most Western legal systems, the major avowed role of the police is to discourage and investigate crimes, with particular emphases on crime against 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 offenses 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.

Multiple levels of police agencies

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.

For instance, in the United States of America, there are several thousand separate police forces (city police, county sheriff, state trooper etc.) run by local and state authorities, as well as several dozen federal law enforcement agencies (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service), endowed with police or quasi-police roles. In turn, at a crime or disaster scene affecting large numbers of people, there will be many different police agencies involved. Usually the highest state agency or the highest federal law enforcement agency (the FBI) will take command in such confusing situations.

In countries following the French model, there may be two separate national police agencies: the National Police and the Gendarmerie, with overlapping but different jurisdiction, possibly in addition to local police forces.

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.

Police armament and equipment

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

Police in the United States usually carry a pistol (Glocks are the most ubiquitous) and a baton (if they are "walking a beat" rather than driving). Most police departments have elite SWAT units which are called in to resolve hostage situations, and to arrest criminals who are resisting arrest with unusually dangerous weapons like assault rifles. Some departments also use nonlethal weapons like Mace, pepper spray, and beanbag rifles. To efficiently cover the sprawling layout of the typical American city, American police officers usually patrol in pairs called "units," and ride in specialized sedans (Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors) called "cruisers." High-speed chases are common in the United States, so police officers are usually trained in high-speed driving techniques. Some police departments allow their officers to carry shotguns in their vehicles so that they will have additional firepower available if they discover that a suspect is carrying something more powerful than a Glock and the SWAT team is still several minutes away.

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 (truncheons, batons, pepper spray, etc.) and 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, Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (formerly known as 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 special squads, such as the Flying Squad and officers protecting airports, government buildings and diplomats are routinely armed.

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.

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 (also known as "less than lethal" or "less-lethal") weaponry, particularly for riot control. Non-lethal weapons include batons, shields, tear gas, pepper spray, 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.

Modern police forces make extensive use of radio communications equipment, both carried on the person and installed in vehicles, to coordinate their work and share information. In recent years, vehicle-installed computers have enhanced the ability of police communications, enabling 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 police equipment includes flashlights, whistles, and paper notebooks.

Difficult issues

Some police organizations, especially in multi-racial or multi-ethnic areas, may be faced with a perception that racial profiling is occurring. Police organizations also 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 US, this is accomplished by having an independent or semi-independent organization investigate such as the FBI, internal affairs, or the Justice Department. Finally, in many places, the social status and pay of police is now leading to major problems with recruitment and morale.

Critics, especially those mindful of the potential for state tyranny, (see "police state"), argue that police organizations are a means by which the state implements its monopoly on the use of force.

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 inevitably spark protests and accusations of racism against police.

For more information on extreme forms and various views of policing, see secret police, police state, corporate police state, thought police, and police brutality.

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 passively investigate serious crimes, usually on a longer-term basis. 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 organised crime, unsolvable by other means. This type of policing shares much with espionage.

Specialised 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. These are sometimes called SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams.

Various police agencies

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

International

  • Interpol International police ogranisation

See also: List of Law Enforcement Agencies.

Related articles

Police roles

Ethical issues related to police

Related concepts

Notable historical police personalities

For fictional accounts of police work, see: Crime fiction.

Notable former police officers

External links

da:Politi de:Polizei et:Politsei fr:Police hi:पुलिस nl:Politie ja:警察 pl:Policja simple:Police fi:Poliisi sv:Polisen zh:警察


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