Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/350

Rh 334 POLICE are required to intervene in the case of riot or tumult, as fortunately the police force is generally sufficient for the preservation of the peace of the country. If disturbance is apprehended in any district, special constables are called upon to aid. It is no less due to the improved temper and habits of the people than to the existence of the police force that military display is rarely needed to suppress riots. In state processions and on some other occasions the police and household troops together maintain the line of route, and where troops assemble for inspection the police sometimes aid in keeping the ground. The police, as constables, are required to carry out the law as to billet ing and the impressment of carriages, at one time a very heavy incident of duty, but considerably lightened by the practice of conveying troops by railway. The police appre hend deserters on reasonable suspicion. Police in charge of a station must receive prisoners, including deserters and absentees subject to military law, if duly sent there by military authority; and, as a person subject to military law is usually left to be dealt with by the ordinary civil tribunal for offences, he is taken by the police before a magistrate. On the other hand no person subject to mili tary law, whether an officer or a private, can neglect or refuse to deliver over to the civil magistrate any officer or soldier accused of an offence punishable in the ordinary mode, or to assist the police in his lawful apprehension; an adjustment of military and civil law is therefore effected. The duties devolving on a police force require a fuller notice than the general remarks already made. General A constable on ordinary patrol duty has to attend to duties, every circumstance that a keen eye and ready ear bring under his notice. In a carefully drawn statute, although not now in general use, the general sphere of observation and duty by constables is thus summarized : &quot; During the time they shall be on duty, use their utmost en deavours to prevent any mischief by fire, and also to prevent all robberies, burglaries, and other felonies and misdemeanors, and other outrages, disorders, and breaches of the peace ; and to appre hend and secure all felons, rogues, vagabonds, and disorderly persons who shall disturb the public peace, or any party or persons wander ing, secreting, or misbehaving himself, herself, or themselves, or whom they shall have reasonable cause to suspect of any evil designs ; and to secure and keep in safe custody any such person, in order that lie or she may be conveyed as soon as conveniently may be before a justice of the peace, to be examined and dealt with according to law ; and it shall and may be lawful to and for the said watchmen, Serjeants of the watch, patrols, and other person or persons to call and require any person or persons to aid and assist them in taking such felons, rogues, vagabonds, and all disorderly or sus pected persons as aforesaid&quot; (3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 90, 41). Relation Police action jn relation to the serious matters constitut- rue. j n g cr i me j s familiar knowledge. It is essential to bear in mind that the powers of the police in arresting and other wise dealing with criminals in a variety of ways is derived from and depends on police constables having been ex pressly invested with the powers and duties of the old parish constables. Every police force has been given these powers and duties of constables, and the possession of them is so essential that, however they may be supplemented by modern legislation, without them no police force could exist for a day. A statistical or other inquiry into crime is necessarily beyond the limits of this article. A few facts, however, bear on the efficiency of the police forces. The returns indicate that the apprehensions in 1881-82 were (omitting fractions) in the proportion of 41 per cent, to the number of crimes committed in England and Wales, against a like propor tion in 1880-81, 42 per cent, in 1879-80, 45 in 1878-79, 44 in 1877-78, 46 for 1876-77, and 47 per cent, for 1875-76. The director of criminal investigations reported for the year 1882 that a comparison of the statistics which are prepared by an independent service with a scrupulous regard to accuracy with those of foreign cities shows that the metropolis of London (metro politan police district), with a territory nearly 700 square miles in extent, covered by more than 700,000 separate houses, and inhabited by a population barely less than 5,000,000, is the safest capital for life and property in the world. Although criminal procedure does not admit of being fully treated here as part of the police system, yet as the police by duty as well as practice are in fact prosecutors in the majority of criminal cases, the important part taken by the police force requires notice. The efficiency of the police, as well as the exigencies of cases, has led to the arrest of oifenders or suspected persons in the great majority of felonies and other crimes, where the power exists, with out applying to magistrates for warrants in the first instance. Although there are some advantages attendant upon a practice under which magistrates do not hear of the matter until the accused is actually before them, it is undoubtedly better, as recently declared by the commissioners reporting on the criminal code, for the police officer to obtain a warrant where circumstances admit of his doing so. When he arrests, whether with or without a warrant, it is his duty to take the prisoner before a magistrate. Without attempting to enter fully into the rights and duties of the police in relation to arrest, it may be mentioned that, while the important action of the police is derived from and wholly depend ent (except in some cases where recent legislation has found a place) on the older powers, science has been made subservient in facilitating the application of those powers to police duties. As in old times the reasonable suspicion giving the right to arrest may still be founded on personal observation and information in the ordinary mode ; but the electric telegraph and the photograph now lend their aid as recognized agents in favour of justice and truth far more than in aid of fraud and deception. If an arrest is without a warrant, it is the officer s duty to show that he acted rightly by establishing at least that he proceeded on reasonable information. His task is generally much more. He or some police officer, whether acting under a warrant or not, has to adduce all the evidence to justify a committal for trial, or, if the case is one in which the court of summary jurisdiction has the power, for a conviction. In carrying out this duty even in simple cases a multitude of matters have to be attended to in which a number of police officers take a part. Whether the arrest is made by a constable on his beat or under other circumstances, the ordinary duty involves taking the prisoner to the police station, where the charge is entered. He is then taken before the magistrate, or, in some cases, bailed. If the charge be one of felony it generally involves a remand, not only for the attendance of witnesses, but to ascertain the prisoner s antecedents ; and these remands are often multiplied in complicated cases. Every remand involves the con veyance of the prisoner to and from the prison or &quot;lock-up, generally the former. Detective police attend at the prison to ascertain whether the accused has been previously convicted or charged. Witnesses must be seen and their attendance secured. If the prisoner is eventually committed for trial it is the duty of the inspector or other officer having charge of the case to aid the magistrate s clerk in making out the certificate of costs, so that the proper amounts for the allowance of witnesses are inserted. Although in ordinary cases there is a nominal &quot; prosecutor &quot; (the person who has been wounded or lost his property), if he enters into a recognizance before the magistrate, he leaves everything to the police, who have to inform him even when and where he must attend for the trial, and the police are required in many cases to give the necessary instructions for the indictment; and, when the proper time arrives for the trial at the sessions or assizes (of which public notice is given), the police must inform the witnesses and arrange for their conveyance and prompt attendance in the precincts of the court, first before the grand jury, afterwards on the trial. A police officer must attend the taxing officer, give the necessary particulars as to the witnesses, and see that they receive their allowances. The responsibilities and duties of the police may be varied, but on the whole are scarcely diminished, if there is a solicitor for a private or for the public prosecutor ; the Act of 1884 relating to the public prosecutor regards the police as essential parties, and it is certain that no general system of prosecution can be carried on with diminished police intervention. The duties of police to accused persons are too important to be passed over in complete silence. To say that they involve perfect fairness ought to be a sufficient guide, but it is right to_ add that the indirect as well as the direct extortion of statements, either by threat or promise, is forbidden. On the other hand to caution accused persons is not the province of the police ; as on the one hand a police officer ought not in general to put questions, so on the other hand he ought not to prevent voluntary statements. - His general duty is to listen, and to remember accurately what the accused says. It is often the duty of an officer to give informa tion to the accused, as for instance of the nature of the charge on which he is arrested or to read the warrant ; but information of this kind should not be given interrogatively. It sometimes happens,