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Our Chief Law Enforcers—the Police
' The Police Service has a role to play in shaping the next generation of citizens,
by helping to keep children safe, aware of their rights and responsibilities and by helping them to understand and respect the law, we contribute to their
development as active citizens.'
Introduction to Police Secondary Schools Involvement Programme.
'It is mostdistressing to us to be the agents whereby our erring fellow-creatures
arc deprived of that liberty which is so dear to all—but we should have
thought of that before we joined the force.'
W. S. Gilbert. The Pirates of Penzancea, Sergeant of police.
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In this country a large number of agencies or departments are responsible for
enforcing laws of one kind or another. Most of the people who do thiswork
are called Inspectors.
For example, the Inspectors of HM Inland Revenue assess most taxes, and
investigate the cases of those who do not pay. The Inspectors of HM Customs
and Excise collect all Value Added Taxes (VAT), and customs duties payable on goods brought in from abroad. They are also responsible for ensuring that
goods are not smuggled into this country, and are nowparticularly concerned
with the importation of illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and cannabis,
which are almost always produced from plants grown abroad.
There are many more Inspectors of one kind or another employed by different government departments. These Include:
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Inspectors, who must
guard against pollution and other damage to theenvironment. Inspectors
also supervise the quality of food, and are concerned with animal welfare.
• Department for Education and Skills Inspectors, who watch over the
standards and management of schools.
OUR CHIEF I.AW ENFORCERS — THE POLICE
• Department of Health Inspectors. This department employs a large team of
Medical Officers (usually qualified doctors), whose job it is towatch over
all aspects of health care.
All these people are specialists in their own fields, and their job Is to make sure
that the laws relating to their particular responsibilities are enforced; but by
far the largest and best-known law enforcement agency in the country is the
Police Force.
THE POLICE
I he Police have the most important part to play in the keeping of public order
andthe protection of persons and property. It is their job to enforce the law,
that is, to make sure we obey it. To do their work effectively they need the
necessary powers. If the police see that the law is about to be broken they have
the power to intervene to prevent that happening. If their orders are not
obeyed, they may arrest the people Involved. If the police have reason to
believe thatsomeone has broken the law, they have the power to arrest the
suspect and bring him before the courts.
Centuries before the formation of any official police force, attempts were
made to provide some means of 'community policing'. The keeping of law
and order was the Special responsibility of Justices of the Peace (JIN). They
had a system of conscripting ordinary citizens known as pettyconstables,
later simply called 'constables', to walk the streets or visit certain public
houses to report any disorder. They were also employed to keep order at public executions and other punishments. The office of constable, still held by all
police officers today, Is now one of the oldest in the kingdom. The characters
Dogberry and Verges in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing wereconstables.
Keeping law and order has always been a difficult task, and in the days
before the modern police force it was a pretty hopeless one. In their desperation Justices of the Peace would also employ thief-takers to catch criminals.
Thief-takers were often no better than the criminals themselves. Sometimes
they were criminals, who knew the criminal underworld well, and in return
for payment...