Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/351

Rh POLICE 335 f ion iiross. however, that in the course of inquiries a person makes a criminatory statement to a police officer, in consequence of which it is the duty of the officer to arrest him. This is distinct from questioning a person whom the officer has not merely suspected but predetermined to arrest. Some other duties, the growth of modern times and unknown until recently, devolve on the police in relation to criminals. They arise from the release of offenders sentenced to penal servitude before the expiration of the period, on certain conditions, or of offenders sentenced, after the expiration of their sentence of imprisonment, to be under police supervision for a given period. Both classes of convicts involve the performance by the police of very responsible duties in reference to reporting and giving notice of changes of residence, so as to make the watch and supervision a real thing, and at the same time to give the convicts the oppor tunity, as intended, of gaining an honest livelihood at some labour or calling. It is a frequent source of complaint by the convicts that they are so watched that they cannot obtain employment, and are driven into the repetition of crime, the police retorting that the allegations are untrue, and that the fresh offence is the result of the habitual offender s incurable love for crime. Any constable in any police district may, if authorized so to do (in writing) by the chief officer of police of that district, without warrant take into custody any convict who is the holder of a licence if it appears to such constable that such convict is getting his livelihood by dis honest means, and may bring him before a court of summary juris diction. The system of &quot;reporting&quot; is itself a branch of police administration of great importance, and requiring considerable knowledge. Its headquarters may be said to be in the metropolis and under the superintendence of the police of that district, but it involves constant communication with other districts and observa tion throughout the kingdom. The extent of police duty in respect of such offenders is shown by the fact that, according to the last published return, there were in England and Wales 1268 convicts on licence and persons under sentence of supervision. The police are in general the instruments for carrying out the statutory provisions respecting certified industrial schools and reformatories. Not only is the process for the most part directed to the police, but magistrates and others interested look to the force for suggestions and assistance. In some respects it would be desir able if industrial schools, as distinguished from reformatories, could be worked without the intervention of police agency, but that seems impracticable. An important police function relates to the execution of process, and is not confined to subjects or cases in which the force is collec tively or individually concerned in the performance of their duty. AVhether the process is a warrant or a summons, its execution or service is in the hands of the police. Magisterial warrants of appre hension and search are by law, in other than exceptional cases, necessarily directed to the police as peace officers, Avhether their purport be to bring the person before the tribunal or to convey him from it or from one place to another ; and in other warrants of execution, although parochial officers are often joined, police are also included to prevent abuses of the law to which the poor are so much exposed. Police officers are now expressly required to have the direction of warrants of distress. The service of a magisterial summons, although not in general prescribed to be effected by a police officer, in practice properly devolves on the force. In the metropolitan police district all police service must be by its officers. In a great variety of matters where notice has to be given to per sons, the duty of communicating it either verbally or in writing or in print is thrown on the police. So convenient a medium for the orderly administration of purely civil matters are the police found that, at the request of the local government board, the police are allowed to deliver and collect voting papers in the election of parochial officers. The increased area over which a police constable as compared with the old parish constable has jurisdiction facilitates both arrests and service of process. Although stationed within a defined area of limited jurisdiction, the duties of the force often involve the opera tion of functions without geographical limits, requiring the actual presence of its members outside as well as the performance within the district of much that relates to the exterior. The service of process calls for constant communication between different police forces. The law provides for the backing of warrants, by which a constable can act beyond his ordinary jurisdiction or by which the warrants can be transmitted. A magisterial .summons for appearance does not require formal transmission. It is addressed not to the police but to the defendant, and can be served by an officer of any district ; but, as until recently the proof of service could only be given by the personal attendance of the serving officer at the magistrate s court, great expense was incurred in travelling to effect service, and inconvenience in attend ing to prove it. This has been remedied in most cases by allowing service to be proved by a declaration before a magistrate. The transmission of process, declarations of service, payment of fees, and many other incidents arising in apparently the most simple cases now involve constant communication between police forces by whatever distance they may be separated. A few lines must suffice on the general duties of the police force in Miscel- relation to a variety of other matters. Some of these are closely laneous connected with crime, others with municipal regulations only. The duties, police, as having all the duties of constables, act as coroner s officers; they make minute inquiries as to suicides, accidents of every kind, insane persons and their apprehension, and deal with destitute persons and persons seized with sudden illness iu the streets, and with vagrants. In populous districts the adjustment of street traffic, of securing Street the comfort as well as safety of persons in passing to and fro, traffic, whether on foot or otherwise, forms a very important branch of the constable s duty. This may be and often is effected by the mere presence of the constable passing on his round without greater exercise of his authority than a request to persons to move or to wait at crossings. Unless in crowded parts, this highway branch of duty may consist in preventing riding and driving furiously, or en footpaths. The general or local laws of each district give ample scope for the exercise of the police constable s authority and the performance of his duties in such matters, including obstructions of all kinds. In the metropolitan police district the commissioner has large powers, including the power to prescribe special limits in the metropolis within which some acts affecting the general ease and freedom of the public are forbidden which are innocent elsewhere. On the police almost invariably devolve the licensing of public Public carriages and the enforcement of the great variety of regulations carriages. respecting them. In the metropolitan police district the licensing of public carriages is vested in the secretary of state, who makes numerous regulations respecting the carriages and their drivers and proprietors, and gives (under power vested in him by the legislature for that purpose) the administration of this important branch of the law to the commissioner of police. Elsewhere in England and Wales the administration of the law in relation to hackney carriages is in the hands of local authorities. The police have charge of the maintenance of good order in houses and places licensed for the Licensed sale of intoxicating liquors, including inquiries and notice as to premises, all kinds of licences, renewals, and transfers, and of course in volving the conduct of numerous persons, not only of the licensed persons and those in their service, but of persons frequenting their houses, not excepting the members of the police force. The laws and regulations for common lodging-houses in the Regulated metropolis are under the police. Other traders exercise their trades, constant vigilance, including pawnbrokers, marine-store dealers, pedlars, and chimney-sweepers. Among almost an infinity of offences may be enumerated those Offences, involving cruelty to animals, prize tights so called, and all descrip tions of unlawful brawls (including brawling in places of public worship), gaming, gambling, and betting, lotteries, disorderly houses, dangerous performances, the infraction of fence months and seasons for birds and fish, the fraudulent removal of goods, violations of cattle plague orders (which the police are expressly required to observe and enforce, involving of late years most arduous duties), and the sale of unwholesome food and of poisons. The police have also to deal with the care and keeping of explosive substances, animals straying, and dogs reasonably suspected to be mad or not under proper care. Some public offences, such as the use of inaccurate weights, adul teration of articles of food, &c., are generally dealt with by in spectors and other special officers, although it is undoubtedly the duty of the police to aid in enforcing the law, and to report to the proper quarter offences coming to their knowledge. In the metro polis, smoke nuisances are dealt with as police offences. The police aid the inland revenue in a variety of ways, and, Dcg-tax. although it is generally undesirable for the police to take part in the collection or enforcement of taxation, they are required in the metropolitan district, by order of the secretary of state, to enforce as far as lies in their power the payment of the dog tax, their other duties giving them greater knowledge on the subject. In visiting places of amusement the police are often performing Places cf duties of a multifarious character. In general the one object is the amuse- maintenance of good order, but sometimes the observation extends ment. to the character of the amusement and the infringement of licences. Apart from the special duties as to the restoration of property Lost pro- left or lost in public carriages, or with reference to prisoners pro- perty. perty, for which there are special provisions, the police exercise a reasonable rather than a specially assigned duty in facilitating the recovery of lost and stray property by the rightful owners. A very few words must suffice for&quot; notice of a subject which has Prosti- been a vexed question before as well as since the establishment of tutes. a police force in the country, and down to the present moment the action of police powers as to street prostitutes. Practically this action has nearly the same limits throughout England and Wales. In the metropolitan police district and in the City of London it is an offence for a common prostitute or night-walker to