Introduction to Police
Police, agents of a government or other authority who are in charge of enforcing laws and keeping order. Examples of public police forces include municipal, county, state, and federal police. Private police forces, called special function police—such as railway police, campus police, and harbor police—provide police services to nongovernmental institutions and have the same legal authority as regular police.
In democratic countries the main purpose of police is to protect the public against behavior or conditions that the public considers dangerous or disruptive. The police are traditionally concerned with halting crime—behavior that is unlawful. They prevent and detect crimes, arrest criminals, hold prisoners, and recover stolen property. They may also perform such public services as controlling traffic, helping the injured, and finding missing persons, and they may become involved with educational, social assistance, and crime prevention programs.
In some countries, secret police are used to help those in power exploit and control the public, largely by helping prevent social, economic, religious, or political change. A police state is one in which such police are used to control almost every aspect of people's lives.
In many countries, such as France, police are centralized; they are responsible to the national government rather than the local community. In the United States, Canada, and other countries with British political traditions, police are largely decentralized. Britain's police are under local control except for special forces such as the London Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police. The national government inspects local forces to see that they meet national standards, and it pays about half their expenses.
This article describes the organization and operations of local, state, and federal police in the United States.
United States Police Forces
United States police were patterned largely after British police. The offices of sheriff and constable, which originated in England under Norman rule, were in existence in colonial America. London's police force, established in 1829 through the efforts of Sir Robert Peel, was the forerunner of modern urban forces. New York City established a professional police force in 1844; other growing cities soon established similar forces to replace elected watchmen. In many frontier communities of the 1800's, volunteers called vigilantes were the main police. State police were patterned after the Texas Rangers, organized in 1835.
Separate police agencies exist at the local, state, and federal levels. Each police agency sets its own standards for the selection, training, and performance of police. Most police agencies are small municipal units; many consist of only one, two, or three part-time police officers. Most of the country's police officers, however, are employed by large municipal forces.
State and federal troops form a reserve police force that can be called upon in emergencies. In case of riots, strikes, or disasters, state governors can call out National Guard units to aid or substitute for civil police. The regular armed forces, including federalized National Guard units, can be called out by the President to control civil disorders (at the request of a state) or enforce federal laws. But even when military units are used as police, an area is very rarely put under martial law (rule by military rather than civil authorities).
The federal government provides information, aid, and training to state and local police agencies through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Department of Justice. The department also grants funds to state and local police agencies for research, planning, and demonstration projects.
Organization
Local PoliceA typical city force is headed by an administrator appointed by the city's government. The administrator may be called the chief, superintendent, commissioner, or captain. A large force usually includes assistant chiefs (sometimes called majors or inspectors), captains, lieutenants, patrol and desk sergeants, dispatchers, detectives, patrol officers, and clerks and other civilian employees. The area controlled from police headquarters may be divided into districts or precincts, each with its own station.
Small police forces (20 members or less) may be divided into shifts or platoons that operate at different times of day. They may be divided further into squads that cover different areas. Large police forces are usually organized into units that have different duties; these units are usually called divisions, bureaus, sections, details, or squads. A force of 200 or more may consist of units for patrol, traffic regulation, criminal investigation (such as a detective bureau), communication and records control, personnel management, and crime prevention (such as a juvenile division). On almost every force, at least half the personnel work as uniformed officers covering an assigned area, often called a beat.
In many villages, townships, county districts, and other communities, a constable aids or acts as the police force. Usually a constable is an elected official with only part-time duties, including aiding the courts.
Most counties have an elected sheriff, who may appoint deputy sheriffs. Usually the sheriff's main work is caring for prisoners. In some counties the sheriff heads a highway patrol or a county police force that resembles a city police force. Some counties have police forces independent of the sheriffs office.
Most of the work done by municipal and county police involves patrol, investigation of complaints, and traffic regulation.
State PoliceState police (often called state troopers) are directed by an agency in the state government, usually known as the State Police, the Department of Public Safety, or the Highway Patrol. In most states their main duty is that of patrolling highways to regulate traffic, catch speeders, and aid accident victims. In some states they act as general police, enforcing state laws in general, and resemble large local forces. State police are often called in to aid local police in emergencies. Many states maintain police agencies independent of the state police. These agencies have special functions such as highway patrol, criminal investigation, liquor law enforcement, or fish and game law enforcement.
Federal PoliceDozens of federal agencies employ law enforcement agents. Some agents have general police authority but operate within a very limited territory; examples include National Park Service rangers and U.S. Marshals (attached to United States district courts). Other federal agents, such as inspectors in the Department of Agriculture and the Public Health Service, have only very limited police authority.
Most federal agents who operate nationally and have general police authority are within these departments and agencies:
Department of Justice:Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Drug Enforcement Administration; Immigration and Naturalization Service Border Patrol
Department of the Treasury:U.S. Secret Service; Internal Revenue Service; U.S. Customs Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Department of Transportation:U.S. Coast Guard
Postal Service:Postal Inspection Service
Department of the Interior:Fish and Wildlife Service
Except in the case of the Coast Guard, the police work done by these agencies is largely intelligence work—investigation rather than patrol or intervention. There are more criminal investigators in these agencies than in all state and local police agencies combined. All the agencies except the Coast Guard, FBI, and Secret Service are confined to policing specific activities regulated by their departments.
Special Police UnitsLarger police organizations often have specially trained units to deal with specific types of enforcement activities or types of crime. Gang units combat gang crimes, such as drug dealing and drive-by shootings. Bomb squads respond to bomb threats, defuse bombs, and investigate bombings. Vice squads are responsible for policing prostitution, gambling, and alcohol violations. Other specialized units may deal with juvenile crime, homicide, narcotics, and organized crime. Since the mid-1960's, police departments have used special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams to face heavily armed suspects in unusually dangerous situations, such as hostage incidents, sniper shootings, and bank robberies in progress.
Other police units carry out police activities with the help of dogs and horses. Canine units—consisting of a dog and a handler team—are used for such activities as detecting corpses, explosives, and drugs; tracking criminals; locating missing persons; and helping in routine patrol. Horse-mounted police carry out routine patrol or serve in special operations, such as riot, crowd, and traffic control. The National Park Service operates one of the most well-respected mounted units in the United States.
In most large police departments, an internal affairs unit is responsible for detecting, preventing, and investigating cases of police corruption. Examples of such corruption include taking money for overlooking offenses or protecting illegal activities; stealing from suspects or crime scenes; and gaining convictions or longer sentences for criminals by using illegal means, such as planting evidence, giving false testimony, or intimidating witnesses.
Police Operations
Police operations can be divided into three categories: maintaining order, community service, and law enforcement.
Maintaining Orderis the chief activity of local police forces. It consists of such operations as directing traffic; checking vacant buildings, watching for suspicious situations, and other patrol activities; and peacekeeping, such as quieting noisy parties and halting violent family quarrels.
On a large police force, officers patrolling in automobiles or motorcycles spend much of their time responding to calls—relayed by radio—from citizens. In cities with wellequipped communication centers, officers dispatched to answer a call can arrive a few minutes after it has been made. Few of the calls involve situations that might result in an arrest. Most involve peacekeeping, community service, and gathering information.
Community ServiceIn addition to providing such traditional community services as giving first aid and locating lost children, modern police forces are often called upon to provide a broader range of service to the community. These services include providing drug awareness and crime-safety education, making referrals to social agencies, assisting victims of violent crimes, and organizing programs to deter juvenile crime.
In the 1980's, municipal police departments began to adopt a community policing approach. In community policing, officers are permanently assigned to specific neighborhoods with the aim of forming working partnerships with merchants, schools, and citizens to create and maintain safe communities.
Law EnforcementPolice help enforce laws through the arrest of violators and the issuing of a summons (a formal order to appear in court to answer a charge). Many arrests are for disorderly conduct, vagrancy, gambling, and violation of liquor laws. Most summonses involve traffic violations.
In the majority of crimes, the only clue police have to the criminal's identity is identification by a victim or witness. Many crimes against property are unobserved and are never solved. In most crimes that are solved, patrols have been present or have arrived on the scene soon enough to make an arrest. When the criminal goes unidentified, police must rely on the work by investigators called detectives and on the work of laboratory specialists to identify, trace, and get sufficient legal evidence to hold suspects.
Detectives typically work in civilian clothing so that they can blend in with the public as they conduct their investigations. They collect physical evidence, interview witnesses, interrogate suspects, make arrests, prepare reports for the prosecution, and testify in court.
Police Discretion and Restrictions
In enforcing laws and in dealing with many routine situations, such as family quarrels and large sidewalk gatherings, police must often use their own discretion. Usually they must decide for themselves whether the behavior of a person or group is disorderly, suspicious, or threatening enough to require police intervention. They must also decide how to intervene most effectively and without violating an individual's legal rights.
Many police procedures—especially those related to the search, detention, and questioning of suspects—conform to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts of appeals. Rulings that have especially affected police work include those designed to protect rights to privacy, free speech, peaceable assembly, counsel, freedom from arbitrary search and seizure, and avoidance of selfincrimination.
In some cases, such as curfew violations by juveniles or certain forms of illegal sexual conduct, police may feel that an arrest would be unwarranted or ineffective. Sometimes the community itself does not support strict law enforcement in cases that involve juveniles or regulation of morals. In cases involving prostitution, gambling, narcotics use, violation of liquor laws, or extortion, legal evidence to justify an arrest may be very hard to gather.
Police may be called on to enforce highly unpopular laws, either acting against behavior or conditions the community approves or protecting those it opposes. They may have to confront behavior or conditions that seriously offend the community but are not clearly illegal or disorderly. Examples have included strikes, protests, and demonstrations. Police must often weigh the potential threat to the community, anticipate public reactions, and interpret the laws that may apply.
It is generally accepted that police have the authority to use force when necessary in carrying out their enforcement and protection duties. Police officers must decide when the use of force is justified and how much force is appropriate. The use of excessive force is known as police brutality. Although police brutality has been identified as a serious problem since the 1960s, in the 1990's a number of highly publicized court cases concerning police brutality heightened the public's awareness of the issue.