Mysteries of Police and Crime, Vol. 1 (of 3)Griffiths, Arthur
History
Mysteries of Police and Crime, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Griffiths, Arthur
Crime; Police
the Mayor for a term of six years. Particular duties are allocated to
the several members of the Board. Thus, the senior Commissioner and
president _ex officio_ is entrusted with the higher discipline of the
force; he deals with all charges of misconduct, and decides whether
offending constables shall or shall not be sent before the public
tribunals. Another Commissioner controls repairs and supplies, examining
and passing all bills for work done, after satisfying himself that it
has been completed. A third supervises the Pension Fund, and disposes of
applications for retirement, and also of applications from widows and
children of police officers for relief. The fourth Commissioner is the
Treasurer of police funds.
Immediately next to the Board stands a Superintendent of Police, who is
chief of the executive, the responsible head of the _personnel_, of the
rank and file of the force. He is the intermediary between the four
Inspectors, who come next in the hierarchy, and the supreme Board, the
channel communicating the Board's will and the agent to enforce its
execution. The Superintendent holds all the threads of general control,
and is responsible for and charged with the enforcement of the law
throughout the city. Three Inspectors supervise each a separate
district, being responsible for the preservation of the peace within its
limits and security to life and limb; the fourth is the head of the
detective branch. After the Inspectors rank the Captains of "precincts,"
of which there were thirty-four previous to the enlargement of the city,
each "precinct" being analogous to a French _arrondissement_ or a police
"division" in London. The Captain is an officer of great influence and
importance in his precinct, which he rules more or less despotically,
but nominally in the best interests of the public. He has a large force
of men at his disposal, and is expected to use it for the comfort and
protection of good citizens, as well as the pursuit and capture of
criminals. The rank and file of the force serving under the Captains are
classed as follows: first the Sergeants, from whom the Captains are
commonly selected; next the Roundsmen; then the Patrolmen, synonymous
with our ordinary blue-coated constables; last of all the Doormen, who
are out of uniform and employed at stations, lock-ups, and in offices,
performing many and various functions of administration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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