Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/359

Rh POLICE 343 may be subject of indictment or injunction, but not of summary police intervention. The fear of drawing down ridicule akin to Verges s direction to the watch, &quot;If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse to bid her still it,&quot; probably stands unduly in the way of police interference with real nuisances. It is not, however, in the minute details of regulation and inspection of the incidents of every-day life that the distinctions between the police systems of the two countries chiefly consist. Such distinctions have of late years greatly diminished ; the inter vention in all matters of health, for example, places the English system more akin to the French, and on the other hand all travellers of mature years can testify to the mitigation and even total cessation in France, and on the Continent generally, of the minute investigation of a stranger who is not a &quot;suspect.&quot; &quot;To the word espionage a stigma is attached,&quot; says Bentham. &quot;Lotus sub stitute the word inspection, which is unconnected with the same pre judices. If this inspection consists in the maintenance of an oppres sive system of police, which subjects innocent actions to punishment, which condemns secretly and arbitrarily, it is natural that such a system and its agents should become odious. But if the inspection consists in the maintenance of a system of police for the preserva tion of the public tranquillity and the execution of good laws, all its inspectors and all its guardians act a useful and salutary part ; it is only the vicious who will have reason to complain, and it will be formidable to them alone.&quot; It is with reference to criminal matters and the police judiciairc that important distinctions exist between the French and English systems. In every arrondissement there is a juge d instruction who makes the first formal inquiry in criminal cases ; and in every tribunal of first instance, or tribunal correctionnel, there is a procu-reur de la republique who with deputies forms the ministere public of that court. In the court of the jugcs de paix (who may be compared to police magis trates) the commissary of the police is the ministere public. The jiif/es de paix, the maire, the commissaries of police, the gendar- nierie, and in rural districts the gardes champetres and the gardes forcstlers, are oliicers of the judicial police ; and by the Code d&quot; Instruction Criminelle all these officers, even the jugcs d instruc tion, are under the orders of the procur cur -general. The vocations of these officers as well as the courts are briefly explained in the article FRANCE (vol. ix. p. 511). Sergents de ville, in 1 aris now called gardiens de la paix (the name having been changed thus in September 1870), are the nearest equivalents of English police constables and are not officers of the police judiciairc. Their powers in preserving the public peace closely resemble the common law powers and duties and protection of the English constable. Their reports of cases have not the authority of a proces verbal. In Paris, as elsewhere, the prefet de police is at the head of the force, with commissaircs dc police, appointed by the president of the republic on the nomination of the minister of the interior, but acting under the orders of the prefect, and having both administra tive and judicial duties. The commissaries see that the laws relating to good order and public safety are observed, and that the police orders are executed, and take special action in serious matters. As officers of the judicial police they are the auxiliaries of the procureur of the republic in correctional and criminal police action, and in the ordinary police tribunal (le tribunal dc simple 2)olicc) they exercise the functions of magistrates. The organization of the central administration (administration ccntrale) comprises three classes or functions which together consti tute la police. First there is the office or cabinet of the prefect for the general police (la police generate), with three bureaus having for their special object the safety of the president of the republic, matters con nected with the use of arms, various societies, the regulation and order of public ceremonies, theatres, amusements and entertain ments, movements of troops, the military police (la police militaire), and various other matters ; secondly, the judicial police (la police judiciaire) already spoken of, with five bureaus, in constant com munication with the courts of judicature, and including the service of the prisons of the Seine, matters relating to aliens, and the pro tection of children ; thirdly, the administrative police (la police administrative), with four bureau !, including everything relating to supplies, navigation, public carriages, animals, firemen, public health, and the enforcement of the law respecting the employment of young persons. Some minor matters are under the supervision of the prefect of the Seine. Concurrently with these divisions there is the municipal police, which comprises all the agents in enforcing police regulations in the streets or public thoroughfares, acting under the orders of a chief (chef de la police municipalc) with a central bureau. The municipal police is divided into two principal branches the service in uniform of the gardiens de la paix, and the service out of uniform of inspectcurs dc police, the latter a compara tively small number. For purposes of municipal police, Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements (corresponding in a great measure with the divisions of the metropolitan police of England), which the uniform police patrol. The total police strength of the Paris arrondissements, according to the latest return, showed 5932 gardiens de la paix, each arrondissement officered by an officicr de paix (an office peculiar to Paris), with 3 or 4 brigadiers and from 24 to 27 sous-brigadiers under his command. There are two divisional inspectors. Besides these divisional gardiens de la paix police, there is a cen tral administration consisting of 6 central brigades of 100 each, 4 of the brigades carrying out the orders of the prefecture at theatres, assemblies, races, and in the Bois de Boulogne, and elsewhere in the capital where their presence is required, while the 5th brigade regulates traffic generally, and the 6th prevents obstructions in the markets. The service dc surete, or detective department (out of uniform), with which is now amalgamated the brigade des mceurs (which deals with public morals, houses of ill fame, prostitutes, and so forth), comprises a commissary, principal inspectors, brigadiers, and 211 inspectors. There are a number of other branches of service including a fire brigade. The proportion of police to inhabitants as last estimated is 1 in 352. The pay of the gardiens de la paix is from 1400 to 1700 francs ; brigadiers, 2000 francs ; sous-brigadiers, 1800 francs ; officiers de paix, 3000 to 6000 francs. The estimate of expenditure of the whole Paris police for 1884 was 23,95 2,631 francs, of which the state contributed 7,693,825 francs. Whether the police of Paris are more effective than those of the English metropolis is doubted. Persons who are best entitled to express an opinion, having practical experience, think that, while a multitude of offices and officers for a multitude of subjects and stages of investigation a system, in short, of bureaucracy exists, which creates an impression, the actual detection of grave offences is not commensurate with the display of attention. It is impossible in the narrow limits of this article to go through Germany, all the police forces of Europe. It must suffice to allude to a few principal states, noting the police forces of their capitals as illustrat ing the systems. Taking the Berlin force as illustrative of the police system in the German empire, police duties are as various os in France ; the system includes a political police controlling all matters relating to the press, societies, clubs, and public and social amusements. Police duties are carried out under the direction of the royal police presidency, the executive police force comprising a police colonel, with, besides commissaries of criminal investiga tions, captains, lieutenants, acting lieutenants, sergeant-majors, and a large body of constables (Schutzmanncr). The total in 1883-84 amounted to 3441 executive officers, including criminal investigation officers, the political police, and the department for the supervision of prostitution. Taking the population of Berlin from the statistical bureau of 27th July 1884 at 1,242,820, this gives 361 to each officer. The pay of the police is principally pro vided from fiscal sources, and varies in an ascending scale from 1125 marks and lodging allowance for the lowest class of constable. Taking Vienna in the same way as illustrative of the Austrian Austria, police, it is to be observed that there are three branches, (1) admini stration ; (2) public safety and judicial police ; and (3) the Govern ment police. At the head of the police service in Vienna there is a president of police, and at the head of each of the three branches there is an Obcrpolizciratli or chief commissary. The head of the Government branch sometimes fills the office of president. Each of the branches is subdivided into departments at the head of which are Polizeirdthe. Passing over the subdivisions of the administrative branch, the public safety and judicial branch includes the following departments : the office for public safety, the central inquiry office, and the record office or Evidenzbureau. The Government police branch comprises three departments : the Government police office, the press office, and the Vcreinsbureau or office for the registra tion of societies. The Sichcrhcitswaclie or executive police of Vienna consists of a central inspector and chief, district, divisional, and other inspectors, with about 2500 constables, Sichcrheitsicadimiinncr. The detective department comprises a chief and other inspectors, and 130 agents. In July 1884 the proportion of police constables to the inhabitants was 1 to 436. In the latest return, the entire police service com prises 2816 persons, at a cost of 2,355,710 florins, of which the state contributes 1,730,740 florins, and the communes the greater part of the remainder. The pay of the constable ascends from 360 florins with allowances of 90 florins. It is obvious that there is a general resemblance between the organization and scope of the police forces of Germany and Austria and of France. In Belgian municipalities the burgomasters are the heads of the Belgium, force, which is under their control. The administrator of public safety is, however, specially instructed by the minister of justice to see that the laws and regulations affecting the police are properly carried out, and he can call on all public functionaries to act in furtherance of that object. The administrator of public safety is specially charged with the administration of the law in regard to aliens, and this law is applied, as in the case of Victor Hugo, to